Starseed
by AbigailWritesStuff
Summary: Cinder and the White Fang represent a huge threat to the stability of the Kingdoms. Team RWBY and their friends have a lot to learn if they're to have any hope of stopping a war before it even begins. Rated M for language, possible lemons later on, violence and mature subject matter. Gonna be extremely dark. White Rose/Bumblebee
1. It's So Much Worse

Ozpin

"And what is an adorable girl, such as yourself, doing at a school designed to train warriors?"

Ozpin could still remember the fervor with which Ruby spoke when she told him why she wanted to be a Huntress. He had been amused when she told him that she already knew who he was. He wheeled over to the window. He could see the whole campus from his office. The dorms, the classrooms, the battle arena, the cafeteria...

"Professor Ozpin?" Glynda's voice shook him from his reverie.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Taiyang just called. Qrow is safe at home."

"Good. He'll need some time to get his strength back. Has he filed a report?"

"No. He's been sleeping since he got back last night. Taiyang will tell him when he wakes up."

"I'd like to know what he found out there."

"As would I, Oz."

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

"Then you'd best head to the cafeteria. There seems to be a gigantic food fight in progress."

Ozpin could hear Glynda's heels clatter against the floor as she ran out of his office. The corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.

"Good to know that my brother is alright." A woman said.

"Hello Raven." Ozpin replied. "What news do you have?"

"It's so much worse than we knew."

AN 

Heya. Thanks for taking the time to read my RWBY fic. I'm writing this fic because I love the RWBY-verse and I really love writing, and basically those two loves collided. This is obviously a super short first chapter, so I'm publishing it at the same time as the second chapter (and maybe the third? I don't know if I'll get through the third fast enough tonight. It's kinda late and I'm already tired.). The chapters are gonna be short for perhaps the first ten or so chapters, and then I'll try to make sure that they're at least a few thousand words each. Anyways, thanks for reading!

-Abigail


	2. The Food Fight

Ruby

"I GOT IT!" Ruby heard Nora yell an instant before Weiss's face disappeared beneath a thrown pie. Ruby, Blake and Yang looked at the JNPR table. Nora immediately pointed at Ren, who had covered his face in dismay. Pyrrha and Jaune looked aghast. Yang picked up a few tomatoes and grinned.

"You wanna play it like that, Nora?" The blonde woman threw a tomato underhand at Nora, who batted it aside with a smile. The tomato hit a second-year student who stood up angrily until he realised exactly what was about to happen. He and his team quickly gathered their things, and they left the cafeteria. Ruby saw Blake wipe Weiss's face clean out of the corner of her eye. Pyrrha and Ren were standing up, getting ready to start the fight. Yang leaped over their table with mashed potatoes in her hand and smeared Jaune's face with it.

"Oh, come on!" The boy complained. Nora laughed and ran away from Yang, grabbing tables as she ran, regardless of if there were students sitting there or not. Pyrrha and Ren followed suit, grabbing even more tables, leaving Jaune at the mercy of Yang. She winked at him and threw him toward his teammates. He actually landed ahead of them, a testament to Yang's immense physical strength. Ruby sighed. So much for a peaceful final day. Team JNPR was erecting a tower out of the confiscated tables, with Nora right at the top.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA. I'M QUEEN OF THE CASTLE, I'M QUEEN OF THE CASTLE!" Nora yelled. Weiss growled. Ruby looked at her friend and saw a bit of jelly still in her white hair. She picked it out with her forefinger and thumb and flicked it away. Weiss bowed her head in thanks. Ruby picked up the milk carton she had been drinking from. She levelled her eyes at Team JNPR.

"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be… DELICIOUS!" Ruby crushed the milk carton in her hand, and felt a little pleasure when she saw fear in Jaune and Ren's eyes.

"YEAH!" Ruby heard her teammates yell behind her.

"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" Nora commanded.

Weiss hit the pillar hard. It cracked and fell with her. Ruby leaped and caught her.

"Weiss?! Don't leave me! Noooooooooo!" She yelled as she beheld her friend's unconscious body. The heiress's eyes opened and she smiled sarcastically at Ruby.

"I'm alive, Ruby."

"You alright?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah. Go get 'em." Weiss said. Ruby set her gently on the ground, just in time to see Yang get launched through the roof by Nora's melon hammer, and Blake get slammed into a wall by Pyrrha's wave of pop cans. _So much for Pyrrha hiding her Semblance_ , Ruby thought. She stood up and gave JNPR her best evil eye. She crouched down into a runner's stance, and bolted toward her friends. When she felt the ground start to disappear beneath her feet, she wrapped herself up in her cape and spun through the air. Instinctively, she knew that she had picked up tables, food, and pop cans with her speed, and she was hurtling directly at JNPR. Jaune and Ren were picked up by her cyclone and so too were Nora and Pyrrha. She stopped her rush at the far wall, and heard JNPR hit the wall and stick, thanks to all the sticky pop on the wall. She jumped straight up into the air and grabbed onto a timber, and she watched her storm of debris smash into JNPR. Once the last piece of turkey had hit the wall, she let go of the timber and dropped to a knee. She heard splashes behind her when the poor team slid down the wall and hit the ground. In front of her, Blake and Weiss were cheering. Until Goodwitch entered the cafeteria. Ruby panicked internally. Some plates of salad thrown from behind her, probably by Nora, were stopped by Goodwitch's Aura and thrown back. Ruby dodged out of the way.

"Ack!" She heard Pyrrha grunt. Ruby watched as Goodwitch cleaned up the cafeteria in a matter of seconds. Soon, there was no food on the ground or the walls, and the tables had been repaired and set back in their normal position.

"Children, please. Do not play with your food."

Ruby sat on a table, and was soon joined by Blake and Weiss. JNPR sat across from them. There was a crash above them, and Yang landed beside Blake, pieces of rubble around them.

"Welcome back." Blake said dryly. Yang gave a thumbs up to Goodwitch, who rolled her eyes. Ozpin appeared at her side and whispered in her ear. Ruby looked at her friends from JNPR and smiled. Peaceful days were overrated anyways.


	3. Board Game Gone Awry

Ren

After the heavy beatdown at the hands of Ruby and Yang, Ren was just as interested in homework as his partner, but he knew he had to complete it. So while Nora snoozed beside him, Ren copied down notes for the both of them. The normal silence of the library was punctuated every few seconds with a shout from the Rose sisters ( _or are they the Xiao Long sisters?_ thought Ren) as they attacked one another in their board game, with occasional sounds of confusion from Weiss and groans from Blake. Ren caught Blake's eye and smiled in sympathy. Blake shrugged and turned back to the game. Ren saw the redness of Blake's eyes and frowned. _How much sleep is she getting?_

"Pancakes." muttered Nora. Ren smiled and pressed a gentle kiss on the top of her head when nobody was looking. He knew Pyrrha and Jaune meant well for him and Nora, but they would just pester and pester until Ren divulged just how much he cared for Nora, and that would lead to a three-week-long interrogation. No, it was better to leave them in the dark. Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's comic away from him, and replaced it with a textbook. Jaune sighed and started to jot down notes. Ren saw Pyrrha smile at Jaune. _When will he ever get the hint? Oh right, he's too busy fawning like a simpleton over Weiss._ Ren turned the page and it draped over Nora's face. He debated moving her so he could continue studying, but he knew that would probably not end well. Best to let her sleep. She'd used a lot of energy in the food fight against Team RWBY. Ren had been foolish to think that a pair of leeks would be enough to stop the turkey fists of Yang. He was gonna feel that pain for a while.

"I hate this game of emotions we play!" Ren heard Weiss cry. He looked over to see Ruby launch herself into Weiss's arms.

"Stay strong, Weiss! We'll make it through this together!" Ruby sobbed into Weiss's shoulder.

"Shut up! Don't touch me!" Weiss cried before wrapping her arms around Ruby. Ren raised an eyebrow. Sometimes he thought that he was the only one to see the obvious attractions between his friends. Anybody with eyes could see that Pyrrha was mad for Jaune, but it seemed that Ruby and Weiss were flying under the radar. Blake and Yang even more so. While Yang tried to educate Blake on her next action they were playing, Jaune subtly excused himself from homework and walked over to team RWBY's table to watch the game. Pyrrha didn't seem to notice.

"Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt you possess!" Weiss said rudely. Ren stifled a chuckle. Jaune was actually a brilliant leader when he stopped panicking. The way they had taken down the Deathstalker last semester was proof.

"Uh, you attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago." Yang stated. _So that's why Ruby was laughing so much._

"Bring it on, Ice Queen. I'll have you know that I've been told that I'm a natural-born leader!"

"By who? Your mother?"

"And Pyrrha!" Jaune said defensively.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha looked over and waved. Ren looked back at his book for a few seconds.

"I mean, you told us all that Blake is secretly a-" Ren heard Jaune say. _Shit._ Pyrrha jumped out of her seat and fastened her hand over Jaune's mouth.

"A fun-loving person whom we all admire and respect!" She covered. Behind Blake (who was sporting a very angry frown), Sun was approaching, flanked by a blue-haired man who was wearing a fashionable red coat and goggles on his forehead. Ren looked him up and down and decided that he was probably quite cool. But then there was the matter of Sun.

Ren had conflicting feelings about Sun. On one hand, he was preventing Blake and Yang from dating, and that was not forgivable. On the other hand… he made Blake happy. Or her equivalent of happy anyways. Ren felt closest to Blake of all the members of RWBY. They were fellow bookworms, and Ren had been surprised to find out that she enjoyed tea as much as he did. When she was revealed to be a Faunus toward the end of last semester, Ren was the first of his team to tell her that it was alright. He woke up the next morning to find a tin of his favourite tea on his bedside table. Blake had smiled at him at breakfast, and he smiled back.

So, anyone who made her happy was alright in Ren's books.

"Uh, aren't libraries for reading?" the blue-haired man asked.

"Thank you!" Ren called with his hands in the air.

"PANCAKES!" Nora woke up. Ren nudged her arm off his textbook.

"Shut up, don't be a nerd." Sun admonished.

"Intellectual!" the blue-haired man corrected with a finger raised. "I'm Neptune." Ren decided that he would quite like Neptune. Until he started flirting with Weiss. And she was flirting back. _Oh my Oum, can't you two tell that Weiss is supposed to be with Ruby? Imbeciles, the lot of you._

AN

I kinda love the Ren I wrote here. He seems to be hella intelligent in canon, so with how little he talks (even if he talks way more often in Volume 3 than he did in previous volumes), he must be thinking a lot. So I kinda went a little crazy with his mental notes. I didn't plan for Ren to be a huge shipper of the 'canon' ships, but that's the way he turned out. It's totally my headcanon that Blake and Ren have a miniature book club of their own and they read books together (perhaps even Ninjas of Love!) and that they're close friends. We never do see Ren or Nora interact with members of RWBY which is a shame, so I'm mostly gonna have to improvise along the way. Anyways, I just know people are gonna complain that I'm mostly sticking with canon things, and using the exact wording of conversations, but that's how I roll. I prefer to work within the already established canon, so that my fics seem at least slightly realistic. Once I catch up to Volume 3, I'll branch off and start doing my own thing. I will be starting the overall plot arc for this fic, but it'll be in conversations and interactions that weren't onscreen in Volume 2, such as Raven being in Ozpin's office in Chapter 1. Anyways, thanks for reading! Favourite/Follow if you liked it! I'll be uploading Chapter 4 tomorrow, but for now, I gotta sleep. Busy school day ahead of me.

-Abigail


	4. It Was Only A Simple Wok

Neptune

"Dude, that Weiss girl is hot!" Neptune grinned. Sun didn't share in his excitement, and brooded. Neptune nudged Sun.

"What's up, man?"

"It's Blake. She's being weird." Sun frowned.

"That's basically par for the course with the girls you like." Neptune laughed. Sun glared at him.

"I'm worried. This whole business with the White Fang and that Torchwick asshat has her really stressed out."

"Then go talk to her."

"As if. The only people she'd talk to are her teammates and…" Sun's head shot up. Neptune saw the glint in his eyes that meant Sun had an idea.

"What are we doing?"

"Follow me." Sun stood up, his tail whipping Neptune in the face.

...

"Just don't look down!" Sun said to Neptune. The blue-haired man grabbed his friend's ankle.

"This is a stupid plan!"

"It'll be worth it, Nep!" Sun shook off Neptune's hand and continued to climb.

"If I fall, I'm telling Sage to murder you!"

"Pff, Sage loves me!"

Sun scampered ahead of Neptune and was above the target within seconds. Neptune sighed and kept climbing. He got up to the ledge and pressed his back against the wall. He sighed in relief.

"You should always get friends involved. That's why I brought Neptune!" Neptune heard Sun say. He looked over to see Team RWBY leaning out the window, staring at him.

"Sup?" He asked.

...

Neptune was not having a good day. It was cool that he met Weiss, and got to chill with Yang. Those twins at the club were also some sweet benefits. But in retrospect, with cars flying at him and having a very tenuous hold on Yang's motorbike, it was not a good day. He pulled out his trusty weapon, Seaborg, in its gun form and fired at the rampaging Paladin. He had to stop it from catching up to Blake and Sun. He shifted Seaborg to its polearm form and leaped off Yang's motorbike onto the Paladin's back. He stabbed its neck with Seaborg and tried to hold on. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sun's clones converge on the Paladin. The machine charged right through them. Sun pulled out Jingu Bang and Riyu Bang in their staff form and leapt at the Paladin. Neptune felt his grip slacken.

"Oh no, oh no!" He said right before the Paladin shook him off, and he crashed right into Sun. The two of them fell off the side of the overpass, and into a dumpster.

"Aw shit, that's gonna leave a mark." Sun cursed. Neptune couldn't say much, as Sun's ass was on top of his head. He batted at Sun's sides, and the monkey Faunus immediately got off of him.

"You okay?" Sun asked.

"My best friend's ass was in my face, and I just got launched a few hundred feet. Do you think I'm okay?" Neptune picked a banana peel off his shoulder, and shuddered.

"Yeah, you're good. Dude, there's a ramen stand!" Sun grabbed Neptune's arm and dragged him to the stand.

"Well, at least there's some benefit from this mess." Neptune muttered.

...

"You guys are freaking useless in a fight, you know that?" Yang appeared suddenly, grabbing the seat beside Sun. Neptune gave a start, and spilled some ramen on his jacket. He sighed in defeat.

"Are you girls alright?" Sun asked.

"Yeah, we're good. Weiss took a bit of a beating and I got punched through a bridge support, but our auras will heal us by the morning. The usual, Abe." Yang said to the old man at the stove. A bowl of soup was in front of her in seconds.

"Good service." Neptune commented. Yang glared at him.

"You're even more useless than Sun. At least he held off Torchwick last semester."

"Ow, my pride."

AN

Sooooo something weird is going on with Chapter 1. On two different browsers, I see the title of the web page as 'Starseed It's So Much Worse' when it should be 'Starseed Chapter 1'. Anybody got some troubleshooting? It's basically a simple cosmetic issue, but it irritates me anyways. I hope you enjoyed this section of the story. I'm gonna be hinting towards Sea Monkeys for the next little while, but I don't know if I'll ever make it official. Feel free to ship as much as you like.

This chapter is short as hell, and I'm sorry for that, but today was pretty hectic. School was a drag, so I couldn't really write during the day, but my November Loot Crate arrived this afternoon so I had to check it out. I've got bowling tonight, but I should be able to crank out another chapter tonight, starring our favourite red-haired champion: The AMAZING, THE POWERFUL, THE OUTSTANDING Pyrrha Nikos. Okay, that may have been the worst character reveal of all time. I'm gonna hide in a hole now.

Before I forget, THIS STORY HAS ALREADY GOTTEN TWO FOLLOWS AND A FAVOURITE! We're on about two hundred views and I'm certain that will go up as the week progresses. Thank you so much for choosing my story to keep your eyes on. I'll try my best to not disappoint you

-Abigail


	5. Overheard

Pyrrha

The steam of the sauna wrapped around Pyrrha like the arms of a lover. Well, that's what she assumed anyways. She loosened the towel around herself a little. She could feel bruises beginning to form on her arms. That boy Mercury's boots had a kick to them, no pun intended. She frowned. The way he had forfeited unsettled her. He alone had landed more hits on her than all of CRDL, and to give up with barely a fight? Something wasn't right with that.

"We're gonna leave you behind, Pyrrha!" Nora yelled from the changeroom. Pyrrha sighed and splashed ice-cold water onto the coals. She dressed in her school uniform, leaving her armour in her locker for later. Jaune and Ren were having a thumb war when she got out. As usual, she felt herself smile slightly when she looked at Jaune. The crush had not gone away.

...

Pyrrha heard Jaune from down the hall, waxing poetic about the numerous virtues of Weiss Schnee.

"I just wish she'd take me seriously, you know? I wish I could tell her how I feel without messing it all up." Jaune said. Pyrrha opened the door with her shoulder. Jaune and Ren were sitting side by side on Jaune's bed, Ren naked but for a pink towel covering his lap. Nora was reading a book on her bed, her headphones cranked up to the max.

"Then do it." She growled. Jaune and Ren looked over at her, and Nora took her headphones off.

"What?" stammered Jaune.

"Tell her exactly what you've just said. No ridiculous schemes, no pick-up lines. Just...be honest."

"But what if-"

"Jaune. You can't get it wrong if it's the truth." Pyrrha said softly. Jaune seemed to process this for a second, before nodding.

"You're right." He stood up. "Thanks, Pyrrha. Good talk, Ren!" Jaune gave Ren a thumbs up, which was reciprocated, before he walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Pyrrha's shoulders sank. She walked over to her study desk, and she heard Nora sigh.

"Practice what you preach, Pyrrha." Nora said solemnly. Pyrrha put her hands on the back of her chair to steady herself. _So they know, huh? What does it matter? To hell with what they know._

"Ren, let's go kill some Grimm." Pyrrha heard Nora say. They both patted Pyrrha's back gently before opening the door, and closing it behind them as they left. Once Pyrrha heard the electronic lock activate, she let her tears fall.

Weiss

The Ice Queen grumbled silently to herself. If Ruby hadn't misplaced their notes, she'd be in the dorm, cozy under her blankets. Despite the ever-present hazard of Ruby's bed crushing her, her bed was quite comfortable. But instead, she was on her way to Professor Goodwitch's lecture hall in the hope that perhaps Ruby had left their notes at their table. The door to the classroom was ajar, and she could hear voices. She cleared her throat and prepared to knock, but then she recognised those voices.

"Our dad taught at Signal, and our mom would take on missions around the kingdom. Her name was Summer Rose, and she was like, Super-Mom. Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters." Yang said. "And then, one day she left for a mission and never came back."

Weiss covered her mouth with her hand. Neither Ruby nor Yang had ever told her this.

"It was tough." Yang continued. "Ruby was really torn up, but.. I think she was still too young to really get what was going on, you know? And my dad just kinda… shut down. It wasn't long before I learned why. Summer wasn't the first love he'd lost. She was the second. The first was my mom. He wouldn't tell me everything, but I learned that the two of them had been on a team together with Summer and Qrow. And that she'd left me with him just after I was born. No one had seen her since."

"Why did she leave you?" Weiss heard Blake ask.

"That question...Why?" Yang questioned herself. Weiss put her back to the wall and slid down. Tears, unbidden, sprang to her eyes. How could her teammates be so happy and optimistic and energetic with what they'd been through?

"I'm not asking you to stop." Yang said tenderly. "Just, please, get some rest. Not just for you, but for the people you care about. And if you feel like coming out tomorrow, I'll save you the first dance." Yang left the room, walking right past Weiss.

"Yang?" Weiss wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Oh, hey! What's up?"

Weiss stood up and wrapped her arms around Yang.

"Whoa, Ice Queen, are you alright?"

"I'm sorry, Yang. For everything."

"You heard, didn't you? You heard about Summer and my mother."

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to find my notes."

"Oh. Crap. I kinda took those. Mine were kinda mediocre, and Blake's kinda not with it."

"Oh. I should probably apologise to Ruby then."

"Thanks, Weiss." Yang hugged Weiss gently.


	6. The Dance

Emerald

"God, I hate dances." Mercury grumbled. Emerald jabbed him in the side.

"We've got our orders. Let's at least pretend to enjoy ourselves." Emerald pulled Mercury to the dance floor. The Ninja and the Viking moved to the side to let them pass. Emerald shuddered.

"That girl is way too happy, all the freaking time."

"They all are. Except maybe Belladonna."

"Well, she looks plenty happy tonight." Emerald said. The Faunus woman was dancing with Yang. The two were quite a lot closer than what could be considered platonic. Mercury's arm encircled Emerald's waist, and she clasped her hands around his neck. The two swayed on the spot.

"Have you got eyes on the rest of them?" Emerald asked.

"I see Rose and Arc. Schnee's sitting alone. Monkey Boy's watching Xiao Long and Belladonna." Mercury said.

"I see Neptune. Ironwood and Polendina are by the entrance." Emerald replied.

"Cinder should have a clear ride."

Ironwood

"Can I go see my friends?" Penny asked for the twenty-seventh time.

"No, Penny, and that is final. You know they can't be trusted. Not even Weiss."

"Awww. Okay, Mr. Ironwood." Penny frowned. Ironwood shook his head. The android had become far too attached to Team RWBY, especially the leader. He would have to wipe her memory at some point. He shook his head when Jaune Arc walked onto the dance floor in a dress. Ironwood had known Jaune's grandfather, albeit temporarily. The man had been a hero, and Ironwood was ashamed to see that his bloodline had been brought so low. Team JNPR started a choreographed dance that the crowd seemed to love. He got a message on his scroll and he quickly glanced at it. The criminals were making a move tonight. He'd already seen Sustrai and Black. They weren't exactly inconspicuous. He excused himself from the hall, and commanded his soldiers to keep an eye on Penny. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sustrai watch him. He smiled. _Let them be afraid of me_.

When Fall accessed the network, his scroll showed him what she was looking for. _Oz, you should have hidden those files better._ Ruby Rose approached the tower, her scythe in her hands. _Looks like Ms. Fall is about to be interrupted. Let's go see the aftermath._ He gave Ruby a few minutes to deal with or be dealt with by Fall, then he rode the elevator up to the breached floor. When the elevator doors opened, Ruby was panting slightly. There were obsidian arrows on the floor and glass from a shattered window over a console.

"Uh...hi?" Ruby said.

Blake

"Thanks, Sun. I think I really needed this." Blake smiled at her friend.

"I think we can both thank Yang. She obviously cares about you." Sun said, his voice lacking its usual joking tone.

"Yeah, that she does." Blake watched two girls dancing together quite closely. She marveled at the shade of green one girl's hair was.

"I should probably go get Neptune. If he drinks any more of the punch, I'll have to carry him back to the dorm, and Sage and Scarlet expressly forbade Nep from getting drunk after the last time."

"What happened the last time?"

"He kissed all three of us." Sun smiled fondly. Blake laughed.

"Didn't know he was into guys." She said.

"Yeah, he had a few boyfriends back in Mistral, but he's mostly into girls. Anyways, gotta go. I had an amazing time tonight. Thanks, Blake." Sun pecked Blake on the cheek and winked at her. Blake blushed deeply. Sun turned on his heel and sauntered over to his friend, who was engaged in an animated conversation with Weiss. He seemed dejected when he was told that they were leaving, but he and Weiss said goodbye quite amicably. Neptune was grinning ear to ear when he left with Sun, the two men draping their arms over the other's shoulders.

"Well, they seem quite close." Yang appeared at Blake's side.

"Did you spike the punch?" Blake accused her partner.

"Um...maybe? Might have gotten some assistance from Junior. Notice how I'm not saying yes or no? I don't wanna get in trouble if Goodwitch somehow traces it back to me, and get you in trouble as an accessory."

"I got it, Yang. I've committed more crimes than you." Blake smirked.

"You rebel, you." Yang grabbed Blake's hand. "Let's get some air."

...

The park was silent when the Bumblebee pair took the bench for themselves.

"You never really appreciate how beautiful the moon is until you see it again." Yang said. Blake shrugged. She'd seen the moon every night when she was on the run from Adam. If she couldn't find a shelter, it was the cold, hard ground for her. She'd spent two months in Atlas, before a truck heading for Vale picked her up. The driver had wanted some 'favours' in return for the ride, but Blake made her displeasure known.

"Thanks for making me come tonight." Blake said. Yang placed a gentle kiss on the top of Blake's head. The Faunus girl recoiled for a second, but let it happen.

"You're very welcome, kitty cat." Yang said.

"Please don't call me that."

"Okay, I'll stop right meow."

"Yang, no."

"Yang, yes! That pun was purrfect!"

"Grimm take you." Blake shivered. Her dress wasn't exactly thick. Yang rubbed Blake's arms.

"Why aren't you using your Aura to stay warm?" Yang frowned.

"Rule 1 of always being hunted: Never waste your Aura on anything less than life-threatening."

"But...you're safe here. You're not being hunted anymore, and there's no way in hell that an intruder could get on campus."

"I know, but old habits died hard."

"Well, I knew that you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks, but I didn't know the same applied to cats." Yang grinned.

"You're such a racist." Blake laughed.

"I'm not that bad, am I?" Yang gasped.

"I'm kidding. It is a bit humiliating for you to make puns about my Faunus heritage. And, let's face it. At least you're not a Schnee."

"Oh shit, Blake goes for the jugular." Yang laughed. Blake winced. Why did she have to use that particular phrasing? "At least Weiss is making some improvements."

"I think Ruby's a good influence on her." Blake shivered again.

"Okay, that's it. C'mere." Yang wrapped her arms around Blake. The woman squirmed.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Wait for it."

Blake could feel the warmth of Yang's arms through her dress. Thoughts she had not allowed herself to entertain flooded her mind, and she blushed all the way down to her chest. Thankfully Yang didn't notice. The warmth seemed to grow stronger until Blake was perfectly warm. _Of course! Her Semblance! It's so sad that I needed time to realise that. I really need to sleep. She would call it a cat nap, the little...nuisance._

"That better?" Yang asked.

"Much. Thank you, Yang." Blake nuzzled into Yang's shoulder. Yang scratched between Blake's cat ears. Blake didn't mean to purr but she did. It started deep in her chest and rumbled in her throat.

"That's the fucking cutest." Yang commented.

"Do not objectify me." Blake ordered.

"Or what?" Yang challenged. Blake could hear the laughter in her best friend's voice.

"I'll think of something." Blake's eyes closed for a second and she yawned. Yang was so comfortable.

"BLAKE! YANG!" Someone yelled. Blake and Yang fell apart and looked around for the source of the voice. Ruby was standing by the entrance to the tower, waving her arms frantically.

"Shit!" Yang took off, Blake at her heels.

AN

I hope you enjoyed that little hint at Bumblebee! (And I totally took liberty with canon by having Cinder and Emerald dance instead of Cinder and Mercury. What can I say? I reaalllllly love same-sex ships.) This was my longest chapter yet, even without this AN, and it took me basically the whole day to write, so I reaaaaally hope you enjoyed it. I wanted to thank you guys, gals, and non-binary pals for reading this fic. Last night, I got three new followers. And to the big-shot fanfic authors like YinYangBangBang or RejectedKnight34, that's a tiny number. Pff, three. To me, that number is gigantic. That's three extra people who want to read the writing I've created, and I am deeply honoured. I think I have seven followers and two favourites on this fic so far, and that means so much to me, considering this is the first fic I've written for anyone but myself. Starseed has a long way to go, and I can't wait to walk down the road with you.

-Abigail


	7. The Breached Kingdom

Nora

KILLKILLKILLSLAUGHTERMAIMDEVOUR! Nora shoveled pancakes into her mouth with no time for air. Ren had made them special for her, as always. They'd discovered her affinity for marmalade pancakes a few years back when they became wards of the Vacuan government. Ren ended up cooking for all of the orphans. Until Nora showed off the first prototype of Magnhild to everyone and accidentally blew a hole into the back of the orphanage. She was kicked out for that and Ren left with her. They spent the next year refining their weapons.

NOTIMEFORTHINKINGMUSTEATMORE. WASTHATARASPBERRY? OH MY OUM ITWASDELICIOUS. REN IS SO AMAZING.

"We have until tomorrow to choose our mission." Jaune sat across the table from Nora. She slurped up another pancake.

"What are we gonna do, Jaune?" She asked.

"I don't know. Maybe something low-key? Sun and Neptune have already snagged junior detective duty down in the city, those lucky guys."

"What about their teammates?"

"I don't know. I guess they're sick or something."

"I have a suggestion." Ren said quietly. Jaune raised his eyebrows.

"What is it?"

"There's a village that wants a few trainees to clear out some Grimm. It's on the western edge of Vacuo." Ren explained. Nora set her fork down, and looked at her friend. He nodded at her. She nodded back.

"You cool with this, Nora?"

"Sounds like a great mission, Jaune! We get to kill some Grimm and get some sun!"

"Great! I gotta tell Pyrrha." Jaune opened his scroll and went to the phone app to call Pyrrha. "She isn't picking up."

"I believe she's in the training arena, practicing on some dummies." Ren said.

"Oh yeah, she mentioned that! I'd better grab Crocea Mors. I could use a little practice myself. Thanks for picking the mission, Ren!" Jaune got off the bench and ran out of the cafeteria.

"Is it the same village?" Nora asked quietly.

"They built on the ruins. I thought it might be good for us." Ren held her hand and squeezed it gently. She leaned into him.

"It's been three years. Do you think we can handle it?"

"We'll see tons of villages just like it when we're professionals. We might as well face our demons while we have the opportunity."

"You're right. Maybe we can say hello to everyone."

"There wasn't much left, Nora."

"I know. It's a nice thought to have, though."

"It is."

"Ren?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm glad you're here."

"As am I, Nora. As am I."

Jaune

He could hear the crashes far before he'd laid eyes on the training arena. Pyrrha must have been beating the tar out of those dummies. He opened the door and jumped back as a decapitated torso came flying at him.

"Watch out!" He yelled.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha yelled back. She smiled at him as he entered the arena, Crocea Mors already strapped to his arm. He shook his wrist and the shield expanded to its full form, the sword jettisoning out the backside into his other hand.

"Hey. Figured I'd train a little with you. Ren's got an idea for the mission."

"Oh, that's wonderful! What does he have in mind?" Pyrrha summoned a few more dummies with her Semblance.

"Basically a patrol around a small Vacuan village." Jaune misjudged a slash and stumbled, shouldering a dummy in the face. Pyrrha faltered as well.

"Where in Vacuo?"

"On the east side, I think?"

"Oh, that's good." Pyrrha visibly relaxed.

"No, my bad, it was the west side."

Pyrrha stiffened.

"What's wrong, Pyrrha?"

"Nothing. My leg is cramping up. I need to take a break." Pyrrha said. She limped over to the bleachers and took a seat. Jaune collapsed Crocea Mors, and sat beside Pyrrha.

"Nora turned serious when Ren mentioned Vacuo. Nora's never serious."

"I know."

"And you looked like you'd seen a ghost when I told you. What's the deal with Vacuo?"

"It's not my place to tell you. Just trust that if Ren and Nora both want to go, we should go."

"Oh. Is your leg actually cramping or was that just an excuse?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha glared at him.

"Just an excuse."

"Oh… While I'm so perceptive, I should make another wild guess. I was being a total ass at the dance, wasn't I?"

"The week before it too." Pyrrha said loftily. Jaune hung his head. He felt Pyrrha's hand on his back. "It's alright, you know. I just wish that…"

"Wish what?" Jaune looked back at Pyrrha. She was biting her lip, a clear sign that something was bothering her.

"I wish that you'd be just a little bit more perceptive, and get the hint."

"What hint?"

"Remember how I said I wished that I could be at the dance with a guy like you?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't want to be with a guy _like_ you."

"Oh. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Pyrrha."

"No, not like that!'" Pyrrha sighed. "Screw it. I like _you_ , Jaune. And I swear, if I have to explain exactly what I mean by that…" Pyrrha let the threat hang.

"As in like a friend, or a brother? Because I already have way too many sister-" Jaune was cut off when Pyrrha leaned in and kissed him.

"That's what I mean, Jaune."

"Oh."

Yang

It hurt like hell when the Nevermores smashed Yang into the ground. It hurt even more when Blake accidentally tripped over her and smashed her head back in the ground. Yang knew her Aura was almost fully depleted after the long day of fighting, and getting her ass whupped by that girl on the train, but she had to keep fighting. This was for real, and innocent people were depending on her. She stood up, feeling her bones shift back into place. Just enough Aura left for some healing, but Oum, was she ever gonna feel it in the morning.

"You okay?" She offered a hand to Blake. The woman took it and hoisted herself up. Her bow had fallen off at some point, and her ears were exposed for all to see. But Blake plainly didn't care. Yang felt a little unnerved by the ferocity of Blake's grin.

"Let's get them, Xiao Long." Blake charged at a pack of Beowulves and disappeared into the fray. Yang sighed and cocked Ember Celica. With a quick blast from each gauntlet, she'd launched herself into the air and was surveying the scene. Ruby and Weiss were fighting back to back against three Ursas, JNPR was destroying a Deathstalker ( _seriously, those guys have a penchant for wrecking those overgrown scorpions_ , Yang thought), and CFVY was ganging up on a pair of King Taijitu. Yang fired Ember Celica up in the air, and slightly backwards, to launch herself at the pack that Blake was dealing death to.

"Need some help, Kitty?" Yang asked.

"Not especially, but it's appreciated." Blake retorted. She stabbed a Beowulf in the eye with the blade of Gambol. A Beowulf chomped down on Yang's right arm. Unfortunately for the Grimm, Ember Celica was aimed right down its throat. Yang pressed the trigger with her middle finger, and the Beowulf exploded, raining black gunk over her.

"Hey, we match now!" Yang said to Blake. Her partner rolled her eyes, and emptied a clip into the bellies of Beowulves she'd knocked over. Yang spotted a Boarbatusk sneaking up behind Blake.

"Look out!" She yelled before she was flattened by a new pack of Beowulves.

"Yang!" Blake yelled and hacked at the mass of flesh, more and more blood and gore splattering onto Yang's hair.

"Look out!" She wheezed. She felt claws digging into her back, nicking her lungs. Blake punted a Beowulf, and Yang felt the claws tear open more of her back, cracking a rib. Blood poured out of her wounds.

"Yang! Oh my god!" The Boarbatusk began to spin, aiming at Blake. Yang gasped in fear. A sniper shot rang out, and the Boarbatusk's dead body crashed into Blake's legs.

"Thanks Ruby!" Blake yelled across the battlefield.

"You got it, Blake!" Ruby responded.

"Shit, Yang, don't you dare die on me." Blake ripped the bottom hem of her shirt off, exposing her midriff, and placed the makeshift bandage on Yang's back, tying it down with Gambol Shroud's ribbons.

"Here, I'm gonna give you some of my Aura." Blake pressed her hands against Yang's cheeks. "We gotta get you back to Beacon."

"No time." Yang gasped in pain as Blake hoisted her to her feet. The blood puddle she'd left behind was quite impressive.

"The hell there isn't. We'll take Oobleck's airship. It's the least that bastard can give us after Mountain Glenn." Blake muttered. Yang hacked out a wet laugh. "Yang, you are not fucking dying on me, you hear me?" Blake roared in Yang's ear.

"You swore for me, Blakey! That's kinda adorable." And then the world turned black for Yang.

Ruby

"She gonna be okay?" The girl asked. She held her sister's hand while she slept.

"She will be alright with proper rest, Ms. Rose. Something I advise you and your team to get. You did excellent work today and you saved lives. You can rest easy, knowing that as of now, you are heroes." Ozpin left Yang's infirmary room. Weiss and Blake slumped over the chairs, not caring how much dirt and blood they left on them. Weiss was positively filthy, by her standards, with her white petticoat not so white anymore. Blake was somehow spotless. Maybe she'd cleaned herself up really quickly, because Ruby seemed to remember seeing Yang's blood on her shirt. Yang. Ruby knew that her sister would be alright, but that knowledge didn't stop her from worrying. Yang was her big sister, her hero. Ruby wouldn't be able to cope if Yang died. She'd already lost too many loved ones. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"We're gonna head back to the dorm to get some rest. You probably should too." Weiss said, and gently squeezed Ruby's shoulder. She and Blake left, shutting the door behind them. Ruby didn't budge. She just kept looking at Yang's face, normally so alive, but now just still. Peaceful was not a good look on her. Ruby laid her head down next to Yang's hand, and before she knew it, she was asleep. When she woke up, she felt someone brushing her hair.

"Who's that?" She asked.

"It's me." Weiss said, tugging on a knot.

"Ow!"

"Sorry!"

Ruby sat up, the brush caught in her hair and banging her scalp. Weiss tried to free it.

"Your hair is too tangled!" Weiss grumbled.

"What time is it?"

"07:00." Weiss answered promptly.

"Uhhh?"

"Seven in the morning." Weiss simplified her answer.

"Wow, I was asleep for a while."

"Pff, Blake's still asleep as far as I know. Then again, she was up for much longer than I was, worrying about Yang. She woke up a couple of hours ago, you know."

"What?!" Ruby almost yelled. Weiss made shushing noises.

"She's fine! Her Aura just needed to recharge. I told her not to wake you up."

"Oh. Then why is she asleep now?"

"Her Aura's only at about fifty percent." Weiss looked over Ruby's shoulder at something. Ruby turned around to see Yang's vital signs. At the top of the screen, she saw a bar representing Yang's Aura.

"Oh. She must have been really hurt to need this long to heal. She's really fast."

"She had no Aura left to defend herself with. Those claws were not hindered in any way."

"She had no Aura, yet she continued to fight?"

"Someone she cared about was in danger."

"What, Blake? Oh, you're not starting this up again, Weiss. I'm telling you, Blake doesn't like Yang back." Ruby groaned, but smiled a little.

"What do you mean, 'back'?" Blake said from the doorway. Ruby and Weiss panicked.

"Uhhh, you weren't supposed to hear that." Weiss stammered.

Scarlet

Scarlet couldn't concentrate over the sounds of Sage's groans. The fever that had incapacitated them both had just run its course through Scarlet's system and he wanted to catch up on homework. It was bad enough that they'd been absent from an invasion of the city, but they'd also missed a dance where, reportedly, same-sex couples were welcomed. It could've been their chance to tell the world outside of Sun and Neptune about them.

"Dude, could you get me some water?" Sage asked. Scarlet snapped a pencil in frustration, but gave in. He leaned over to the team mini-fridge and pulled out a frigid bottle of water. He tossed it at Sage without looking, and turned back to his work. Unfortunately, he'd broken his last writing instrument. Remnants of shattered pencils littered the desktop.

"I can't open it." Sage said weakly. Scarlet turned around. His boyfriend was sweating profusely under his five blankets. Scarlet put his hand on Sage's forehead.

"Yeah, you're burning up." Scarlet twisted the lid on the water bottle and handed it back to Sage. He then went over to Sun and Neptune's beds to strip them of their blankets. Sage needed them more, he reasoned. He gently layered them on top of Sage, one at a time. The green-haired man was sipping at his water very slowly.

"You're gonna need to drink more, you know."

"Yeah. Thanks, Scar." Sage held Scarlet's hand to his chest. Scarlet felt Sage's sweat coating his skin, and fought the desire to shudder and recoil. "Did anyone get hurt bad yesterday?"

"Last I heard, the worst out of all of them was Yang Xiao Long. Her back was ripped up, and she lost a lot of blood. Everybody else has bruises and exhaustion, but that's it."

"Xiao Long? As in Taiyang Xiao Long? Shit, I didn't know he had kids, let alone that they went to Beacon. This school rocks now." Sage covered his mouth as a coughing fit took hold of his body.

"Just rest up, love." Scarlet pressed a kiss to Sage's forehead and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Sometimes he regretted having an outfit that lacked sleeves. Perhaps he'd have to assemble an alternate outfit.

AN

Holy shit, I think I outdid myself with this chapter. I didn't intend for it to become so inundated with shipping, but these things happen, you know. So Renora/Pink Lotus or whatever you wanna call it, will definitely become a thing in the next few chapters. Arkos, on the other hand, not so much. You know how in Volume 3, Episode 2 "New Challengers" that when JNPR was talking about the team formations Pyrrha said something like "What are we?" "Pyrrha!" "Sorry! I just want it to be _clearly defined!_ ". Or something like that. To me that sounds like she's pissed that she and Jaune had a moment at the dance, and he hadn't done anything about it. I feel like that's actually canon. Bumblebee may also take some time to form, depends on how I write the next few chapters. Sage/Scarlet is totally a headcanon because we haven't seen them interact, like, ever. Sadface. Just for shits and giggles, I wanna talk ahead of time about the sexualities of RWBY. This is also totally my headcanon, but I believe it to be true in canon as well. Ruby is asexual, or at the very least, questioning. She rarely ever mentions attraction or relationships of any sort, mostly because she's too busy killing Grimm or fawning over Crescent Rose. She has shown some slight affection for Weiss, which I freaking love as a White Rose shipper, but it could totally be platonic. Weiss is bisexual, or perhaps she's gay and she's just covering. I dunno. I feel like there is some chemistry between her and Neptune, but she sees him mostly as a friend, or a peer. Someone to admire, but I don't think there's actually any attraction. Blake is definitely bisexual. I'm not sure if she said that she and Adam had been in a relationship, but I just know that they were and that he was abusive. It would fit with so many things in her behaviour. She's definitely attracted to Sun, as evidenced by her cute as fuck blushing when he did his little victory dance after Neptune totally murdered Team NDGO. I feel as if she's got a tiny little crush on Yang as well. Yang is pansexual, and gives no fucks. She was toooootally flirting with Blake in Volume 2, and maybe a little in Volume 1. She was also flirting just a tiny bit with Neptune, and I know I may get flak for this, but maybe Melanie and Miltia as well? This is all just headcanon anyways.

I wrote Nora's thinking process as chaotic and jumbled because thoughts are always so much faster than spoken words, and we've seen how fast she speaks. I chose to make Nora and Ren's hometown in Vacuo, because in my mind, it's a desert wasteland with mountains and forest here and there. Their hometown was on the fringes of a forest, and it was destroyed by Grimm when they were fourteen. We know that they're orphans because of Nora's rant in the Volume 3 opener (which broke my goddamn heart).

I totally outdid myself with this AN too. Welp. I may have just doubled the word count for this chapter. Sorry. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	8. Aftermath

Taiyang

"Start from the top, Qrow."

"Well, there I was in Mistral, flirting with these two gorgeous women…"

"Skip the anecdotes, Qrow."

"Jeez, what's got your panties in a twist? I almost died, you know."

"So did Yang."

"Wait, what?" Qrow sat up quickly. He hissed in pain and clutched at his broken ribs.

"Calm down. She's fine, but we need to stop this sort of shit before it can even begin."

"True. Okay, those women told me about a shipment of Dust coming into town. Their husbands worked at the airport, and they were told that the shipment was huge. Using my immense powers of memory, I recalled the incident from last semester, and figured I'd check it out just in case. And I was right. Adam Taurus was there."

"What?!"

"I know, Tai. I had trouble believing it too. But he's alive."

"Fuck." Taiyang grabbed Qrow's flask and took a draught. The Dust-infused whiskey burned his throat on the way down. "I'd really hoped that he'd stay down. Summer deserved closure."

"Yeah, she did. I don't know about his little cat friend. Maybe she's dead."

"We can hope. What did Taurus do?"

"He killed the guards and stole the Dust, as you'd expect. I put a tracker on his airship, and followed them to their base. It's a long goddamn way into the wild."

"They obviously couldn't be near a city."

"They didn't have to be _that_ far out." Qrow grumbled. He held his hand out for his flask, and Taiyang obliged. Qrow took a long pull. "They had a ten-foot-tall barbed wire fence. It was electrified, as I unfortunately found out. Really, really powerful jolt. I think it was to stop the Grimm from getting in...or getting out."

"Out?"

"They were keeping Grimm in cages, Tai. They were experimenting on them. There must have been a few hundred. Grimm I hadn't seen in years, and I think they were breeding them."

"Shit."

"Yeah. There was blood all around the cages and bits of White Fang armour, so I'm pretty sure they were feeding the Grimm their own people."

"Monsters, the lot of them."

"And the Grimm are pretty bad too." Qrow joked weakly. "I didn't get much intel before Cinder found me. I snagged a few maps on the way out, but I didn't get a chance to look at them, and I had to drop 'em when they caught on fire. Fall's Semblance is really annoying."

"So how'd you get all busted up?"

"A Goliath stepped on me."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope. Funny thing is, I think it saved my life. The White Fang weren't gonna go anywhere near a Goliath, and they figured I was dead. So they just hid back in their little base. I stayed still for an hour, just in case. Then I headed back to the Kingdom to get a lift out here. You know the rest."

"Jeez."

"We've got a war coming, Tai. And I'm scared it'll happen soon."

Blake

"When we yelled after her, Ruby tripped, and I swear she skipped like a stone across the water. She was bedridden for a week while her fledgling Aura healed her up. I had to help her walk to the bathroom like three times a day." Yang smiled fondly at the memory. Blake laughed. She stroked Yang's arm with her hand.

"Sounds like you two had a great childhood." Blake commented.

"Well, aside from Summer dying… Yeah, I guess we did."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. We both really miss her, and sometimes I hear Ruby talking to her, but we're alright. We've got you and Weiss and all our other friends." Yang lifted her hand to touch Blake's cheek. Blake held her hand there.

"Yang, Ruby and Weiss were suggesting that you like me. More than as a friend, that is. I wasn't supposed to hear it, but you know how loud those two are."

"Oh." Yang looked crestfallen. She let her hand fall, banging into the handrails of her hospital bed. "Ouch."

"I told them that it was unlikely, that you only liked me as a friend and a partner, that you could do so much better than an ex-terrorist."

"Yeah. That." Yang mumbled. Blake leaned in.

"That I didn't think of you like that, and that there could never be something between me and you." She whispered. Yang's eyes were filled with trepidation.

"Oh?" Yang parted her lips slightly.

"I'm not gonna kiss you for the first time in a hospital." Blake winked, and sat back up.

"Oh." Yang frowned. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Blake called. Sun walked in.

"Hey, Yang. How are you?" He waved.

"Coping. I know you're here for Blake. Take her and get outta here, Monkey Boy." Yang said. Her words were bitter, but her tone seemed upbeat. Blake touched her hand again.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm good. JNPR is coming by later to check on me anyways. Have fun."

Blake let herself be ushered out by Sun, and they left the hospital. Sun led her to the statue of Jaune's grandfather and they sat at the base.

"How's it going?" Sun asked casually.

"Tired, but pretty good. You?"

"Same mostly. Thanks to Scarlet and Sage, I didn't get much sleep last night."

Blake blushed as she thought of what that could mean.

"Oh no, not like that! Oum, you read way too much Ninjas of Love. Nah, Scarlet stole our blankets to help Sage burn through his fever. Nep and I were freezing."

"That sounds awful. Without Yang, our dorm is a lot colder too. Her Semblance keeps us all quite toasty."

"That sounds awesome. I wish Scarlet had a Semblance like that, but all he does is freaking levitate."

"That sounds like a pretty cool Semblance though."

"True."

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"I can't just want to hang out with a friend? I have to have something to talk about?"

"Yep." Blake popped the 'p' of 'yep' like Ruby and Yang were wont to do.

"Alright then. I wanted to ask you if you'd like to go out some time. Like, on a date."

"Oh." Blake frowned. She would have to word her next statement perfectly to avoid hurting Sun.

"I mean, we can go as friends, if that's what you'd prefer." Sun said hurriedly.

"Sun, I'm sorry. I really like you, but…"

"Not in that way?"

"No, in that way. Just not as much as I like someone else."

"Oh. Shit. I missed my chance, didn't I?"

"I don't think you ever had a chance. If I hadn't met her, maybe. But if I hadn't met her, I don't think I would've been able to open up to you."

" 'Her', eh? I get it. She's a great woman." Sun smiled. He opened his arms for a hug, and Blake obliged. She felt his warm chest against her cheek.

"As long as you're happy, Blake. That's all that matters. If she hurts you, let me know. I won't be able to do much about it, because she's scary as hell, but I'll try."

"Thank you, Sun." Blake let go of him and sat back up.

"I interrupted a moment in there, didn't I?" Sun pondered.

"Yeah, you probably did."

"Crap. Sorry. You gonna go get the girl?"

"Maybe. Or maybe I could spend time with a good friend."

"Oh no, you are not putting the responsibility on me. I've already got enough responsibility from being a team leader. Go tell her how you feel, Blake." Sun held his fist up for a fist bump. Blake sighed in exasperation, and bumped his fist with her own.

"Fiiine. I'll tell you how it went."

"Good luck, Blake." Sun hugged her quickly, then set off in the direction of his dorm. Blake sighed. _Here we go._

Blake took a deep breath before she opened the door to Yang's room, trying to calm her nerves. She'd known that there was some form of attraction between her and Yang since they met, but for it to actually be discussed? For it to be a reality?

"Yang, I wanna talk." Blake said as she walked in. Yang's bed was empty. "What the hell?" She stepped back into the hallway and looked up and down. "Shit!"

She took out her scroll and called Ruby.

"Blake? What's up?" Ruby answered after the fourth ring, yawning.

"Yang's not in the hospital and I don't know where she is."

"Oh no! Don't move, we'll look for her together. I'm on my way."

"Thanks Ruby."

"Oh wait, she's here! She's sleeping in her bed! I didn't hear her come in."

Blake ended the call without saying goodbye and ran to her dorm. She almost smashed down the door to their room in her haste. Ruby looked over at her.

"Shh, she's still asleep." Ruby made a shushing motion at Blake. Whether she was talking about Weiss (who was making some cute snoring noises) or Yang, Blake wasn't sure. She sat at the foot of Yang's bed, and watched her sleeping friend.

"You're getting a bit creepy, Blake." Ruby said. Blake clambered up to her own bed.

"Less creepy?" Blake asked. Ruby laughed.

"I may be unobservant, but I'm not as bad as Jaune. You really like her, don't you?"

"Yeah. I really do."

"I don't have to give you the 'If you break her heart, I'll blah blah blah' speech, do I?"

"Nope."

"Good. Because you're my friend, and she's my sister, and you two make each other happy. That's something to hold on to."

"When the hell did you get so wise?"

Ruby laughed.

"I'm going to sleep, Blake. I'm tired from being knocked out."

Within seconds, Ruby was snoring as well. Blake smiled at her leader, and relaxed on her bed. She curled up in a ball and closed her eyes. And then, she too fell asleep.

...

Blake woke up groggily. She must have slept quite a while because the sun was stabbing her in the eyeballs. Blake groaned and rolled over. Her tired brain told her that something was different. Her senses on instant alert, she tried to figure out what was wrong. It took her a few seconds, but she registered the absence of Yang's breathing. She peeked down the crack between her bed and the wall. Yang wasn't in her bed. She rolled over again. The sun was no longer shining. In fact, the room was quite dark, but she could see perfectly, thanks to her Faunus blood. Ruby and Weiss were in their beds, still sleeping. Blake sat up and yawned. Her stomach growled. _Better find something to eat._

She leapt from her bed to the ground, stretching as she fell. She sensed the presence of something behind her. _Oh, freaking Zwei._ Blake couldn't get used to the corgi. Not in a million years. Everybody else loved it, and it had been useful in the fight, despite the fact that that made no sense, but Blake couldn't bring herself to welcome it into her life. She tried to step away, but she felt something wrap around her calf. _Ack, it's touching me! Wait… that's not fur._ She was wrenched backwards onto Yang's bed. _NO. NOT AFTER ALL THIS TIME._ Blake panicked. Adam couldn't have found her, could he?!

"Hey, calm down. It's me." Yang's soothing voice reached her ears.

"What the hell, Yang?"

"Sorry, I was trying to startle you. Guess it worked too well."

"Holy shit, you scared me. Don't do that!" Blake swatted Yang's forehead. The blonde giggled.

"It's nice to know that I can catch you off guard."

"Never again, though. I've got my eyes on-" Blake was cut off when Yang kissed her. She weakly protested, but soon melted into the kiss. She'd been fantasising about this for far too long. Blake grabbed Yang's collar and pulled her closer. Yang's hands travelled up and down Blake's back. When they finally separated, they were redder than Yang's eyes when she was pissed off.

"Well...that was a thing." Blake said breathlessly.

"I'm not in the hospital anymore, so of course it was a thing."

"Is that why you left?"

"Um...maybe?"

"You shouldn't have, but I'm glad you did." Blake kissed Yang gently. Yang nibbled at Blake's bottom lip.

"If you two would stop making out, I'd like to get some more sleep." Weiss complained. Blake and Yang looked at each other and giggled. Blake got off Yang's bed, kissing her one more time.

"Hey, stay down here." Yang requested. Blake weighed her options, then let Yang pull her back into her bed. Blake faced the bottom of her own bed, with Yang cuddling up to her side.

"You mind being big spoon?" Blake asked.

"Not at all." Yang nuzzled Blake's neck. Blake turned onto her side, and felt Yang press up against her back. Yang's Semblance spread heat through Blake's whole body, and Yang's arm hooked around Blake at the bottom of her ribs. Blake felt Yang's lips touch the back of her neck.

"Sleep tight, kitty cat."

Ruby

"So they finally got together, huh?" Ruby looked at her sister and her friend, asleep and cuddling.

"Yeah, they woke me up with their kissing." Weiss shuddered.

"I think they're cute." Ruby stated.

"Yeah, maybe a little." Weiss relented. "Let's go grab breakfast."

...

Ruby noted that Pyrrha and Jaune were sitting closer together than usual, as were Nora and Ren. Two men were sitting with Sun and Neptune, and she assumed them to be Scarlet and Sage. They were holding hands. Team CFVY had completely filled plates and bowls, and Velvet was snoozing on Yatsuhashi's shoulder. He ate with his other arm without complaint.

"Nothing like a battle to get people together." Ruby commented.

"Here's to us for avoiding that drama." Weiss raised her glass of orange juice. Ruby snickered and clanked her own glass against Weiss's.

"No distractions for us." Ruby said.

"Just killing monsters." Weiss agreed.

"May it never change."

"WHY?!" Ren yelled. Everybody turned to look at him and he ducked his head. "Ignore me, please."

AN

Hey guys. This may well be my last chapter for a couple of days. I'm dead tired, and I've been passing out in school, so I need to catch up and get some sleep. Tomorrow could very well be an ice day (school is basically cancelled due to ice on the road or hazardous conditions) and if it is, I'll definitely get some of this story done. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I think you will because FREAKING BUMBLEBEE! Okay, I'll calm down now. I love Bumblebee, holy shit. Anyways, enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you when I see you.

*celebrates being almost at a thousand views and ten follows. Four favourites so far. *

-Abigail


	9. Matches Made

Reese

"Let's keep our heads out there." Arslan said. She put her hands on Bolin and Nadir's necks and stared Reese in the eye. "We can do this."

"Yes ma'am." Reese nodded.

"Let's get 'em." Bolin said.

Team ABRN entered the stadium with their heads held high. They spotted fellow Haven students and waved. The Mistralians cheered. On the opposite end of the arena, Team RWBY was approaching. The blonde one was pumping her arms in the air, loving the attention she was getting. Arslan had drilled facts about the team into Reese's head. She knew RWBY's tactics, weapons and skills. She knew their breakfast preferences, for crying out loud. The leader, Ruby, was only 15 and she'd been admitted to Beacon, and that alone was enough for concern. The others...Reese wasn't impressed. They had almost no capacity for teamwork, dissolving into bickering. They'd shown some aptitude during the Breach, but Reese knew her team could've taken the Grimm on with their eyes closed. Even Nadir could've taken them on alone.

"Reese, you're on distraction duty. Take out Belladonna. Bolin, Nadir, take out Ruby and the Schnee if you can. I've got Yang." Arslan gave her orders. Reese pulled up her hood and prepped Piecemeal. She noted the colour of the wire wrapped around Arslan's ankle.

 _Shit, she's infused Fate with Frost Dust. She really wants to end Xiao Long. Fair enough. With her berserker rage, we should probably take her out before we go after her sister._

ABRN's side of the arena became an icy mess, filled with gigantic spikes. _That helps Schnee way too much. Her Semblance is gonna wreak havoc over there. Let's keep her away from that._

Surely enough, Weiss was smirking. _Self-satisfied brat._

RWBY's side rolled a volcano, and their half was soon littered with lava pools, red Dust crystals and sharp rock formations. _Ooh hoo, Arslan's gonna love that._

Reese looked over at her team leader. Arslan was composed enough to keep her emotions off her face, but Reese could see the glint of triumph in her eyes.

"Let the fight begin!" The commentators yelled, and Reese launched herself at Belladonna. The Faunus woman stumbled backwards, surprised by Reese's ferocity, but to her credit, fought back with obvious skill. Reese slashed at Belladonna with Piecemeal. Belladonna flinched and retaliated with Gambol Shroud, and constantly spawned her shadow clones. It was a pretty useful Semblance, Reese admitted. It wouldn't help Belladonna much, but it was useful. Reese hovered back to the beginning platform, letting Blake think she was retreating. When she didn't follow, Reese turned around and went back to Blake. The woman was in a fighting stance. _So be it._ Reese spun around on Piecemeal to gain momentum, then launched it at Blake. Blake slashed at it, ricocheting it back to Reese, who punched it back, and Blake slashed it back again, but this time she ran at Reese. Reese caught Piecemeal and used it as a shield against Blake's constant attacks. She smashed Blake in the face with Piecemeal. The woman stumbled back in shock. Reese did a backflip and landed with Piecemeal under her feet. _No challenge, whatsoever_. Reese advanced toward Blake, flying through the air. The Faunus smiled and jumped back leaving an ice clone.

 _Shit, she must have gotten some Dust from Schnee._ Reese felt Piecemeal hit the air, and if it wasn't for her Semblance, she would've fallen off. Which may well have been a better outcome, because Blake slashed at her, sending her up in the air. Piecemeal flew alongside her, and she shifted it to its dual pistol form and shot at Blake. The Faunus dodged the bullets with ease. Reese felt gravity kick in and she plummeted back to the ice. The next few minutes dissolved into pain and darkness as her tailbone smashed into the ice and cracked. When she stood up on shaky legs, Belladonna hadn't moved and she was looking at Reese with a somewhat horrified expression. Reese concentrated her Aura, and felt her tailbone heal.

"That's better." She said to herself. She surveyed the fight. Arslan had Yang on the ropes as expected, Nadir was standing in a block of ice, looking dejected and Schnee and Rose were advancing on Bolin. She hopped onto Piecemeal and hovered over to Bolin. He smashed a Dust crystal and took a shard from it. He threw it at Reese who caught it and pushed it into Piecemeal. The hoverboard instantly turned red. Reese winked at Blake, and hopped onto Piecemeal. She hovered over to Nadir, thawing the ice around his ankles. She accelerated Piecemeal and charged directly at Blake. She leapt up and smashed Piecemeal into Blake's forearms, knocking her back some distance into an ice block. Reese didn't give Blake even a second of peace and slashed at her. Blake tossed her blade into an ice block and used it to pull herself around it, disappearing on the other side. Reese grinned. It was game over now. She moved over to where Blake vanished, and she saw her standing with her back to Reese. Reese charged in and spun Piecemeal into Blake's back, and Blake...disappeared. In a fraction of a second, Reese saw Gambol Shroud's string jettison across her path, carried by the pistol. _Fuck me._ The string was pulled taut and Reese was clotheslined. She felt Blake's feet in her back as she was kicked out of the arena.

"Ooh, that's a double whammy! Reese Chloris is eliminated by ring-out and Aura level!"

Reese smashed her fist into the ground. _DAMN IT!_

 _..._

"Where did we go so wrong?" Nadir moaned. The team shoved their gear in the lockers Beacon had given them. The locker room smelled of sweat and feet, and Reese felt her nose wrinkle.

"You all let yourselves be caught unawares. This is unacceptable!" Arslan raged.

"I think you did too, Lan." Reese said. Arslan rounded on her.

"What did you say to me?"

"They were far more prepared than we thought they'd be. Belladonna and Rose were using all sorts of Dust. Schnee's glyphs were far more powerful than we thought they'd be, and they worked together far too well. We were too damn cocky."

"What she said." Bolin agreed.

"Shut up, Bolin. I'll get to you later."

"Yes'm."

"We did manage to ingratiate ourselves with them slightly, right?" Nadir asked. "We can still try to pull this together for the singles round, if they lose in the doubles."

"If! At most, we can get a bloody consolation prize! This was our chance to make a name for ourselves and we screwed it the fuck up!" Arslan kicked over a garbage can and stormed out of the room.

"I'll go get her." Reese shut her locker, and hurried after Arslan. She found her leader down the hall a ways in a small alcove. She was crying.

"Lan." Reese sat down beside Arslan. She felt a slight bit of pain in her tailbone, but nothing unbearable.

"This was our one chance." Arslan sobbed.

"There's other tournaments, and there's always next year. We just didn't have enough information this year." Reese patted Arslan's knees.

"I wanted us to get some fucking respect back home. I wanted everyone to stop shitting on you guys." Arslan scooted out of the alcove and laid her head on Reese's shoulder.

"We'll be fine, love." Reese touched Arslan's hand.

"It's Bolin's day today." Arslan said hesitantly.

"He won't mind. You need me more than he does." Reese tilted Arslan's face up to meet hers, and kissed her. Arslan gladly accepted the kiss.

"We'll be fine." Reese broke off the kiss, and gently stroked Arslan's hair. The woman sniffled.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. We've got an in with Belladonna at the very least."

"Thanks for this, Reese."

"No problem, my love."

Jaune

"Concentrate, Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled. She threw Akoúo and Miló at him, each from the opposite direction of the other. Jaune concentrated his Aura into a bright white shield. Miló bounced off, but Akoúo came right through and smashed him in the head.

"Ow!" Jaune yelped.

"Are you okay, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, I guess."

"You alright to continue?"

"Yeah. Let's do it again."

...

Jaune landed on his back, smashing his head off the cold cement. Pyrrha was by his side in an instant, cradling his head.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha said.

"I'll be fine. You may need to wake me up through the night just to make sure I don't die from this concussion."

Jaune closed his eyes and clenched his teeth to ride through the pain. He felt Pyrrha press her lips against his forehead.

"Don't do that. Please." Jaune said softly.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

...

"After all that, all we needed to do was let Nora loose." Jaune groaned. He'd taken a hit in his shoulder from May Zedong's sniper rifle.

"I'm cleaaaaaarly the best on this team!" Nora laughed. She kicked in the door to their room, busting the hinges.

"Not agaiiin." Ren said in exasperation. "I'm gonna take a shower."

Ren headed into the bathroom, Nora at this heels.

"Uhhhhh?" Pyrrha asked.

"I've seen Ren naked enough times to not care anymore. I need to shave my legs. They are not sexy at the moment." Nora pushed Ren ahead of her. Jaune could see the back of Ren's neck turn red, just before Nora shut the door.

"They are far too comfortable with each other." Jaune said. Pyrrha didn't respond. "Are you okay, Pyrrha?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Jaune. Thank you for asking."

"Okay, I know that tone of voice. What's up?"

"It's ironic that you know specific tones of my voice, but you don't know shit about my emotions." Pyrrha snapped. Jaune sat across from her.

"Is that what this is about? I can't give you what you want, Pyrrha."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because...I don't know. I like you too, I can promise you that. You're beautiful, and funny, and kind, and so freaking amazing. But...I'm me. And you're you."

"How apt of you." Pyrrha said sarcastically. Jaune buried his face in his hands.

"Pyrrha, I'm sorry. You deserve so much more than me."

"I don't care."

"Pyrrha… I have seven sisters. And growing up with them meant that I had to watch their hearts be broken again and again by their boyfriends or girlfriends. I promised to myself that I'd never do that to anyone. Pyrrha, if I ever disappointed you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Pyrrha sat beside Jaune.

"Jaune, I really like you. There's no way you can disappoint me. Irritate me, of course, but never disappoint."

"I can't take that chance, Pyrrha. Not with you."

"And you could risk that with Weiss?"

Jaune was dumbstruck.

"If you feel that you could get away with breaking Weiss's heart, maybe you're right. I deserve more than you." Pyrrha glared at him, but didn't move.

"You're right." Jaune hung his head.

"I know I'm right."

"I need to apologise to her."

"Yes, you do."

"I'm sorry, Pyrrha."

"It's okay." Then she kissed him, and he kissed back. She pressed her hands against his chest, and he pulled her against his body. Pyrrha broke the kiss.

"Go say sorry to Weiss." She said.

"Wait, really?"

"Yes." Pyrrha kissed him again. "Get going."

Penny

"SALUTATIONS!" The android yelled at the door to RWBY's dorm room. The door opened to reveal a very sleepy Weiss.

"They're on a trip into the city, Penny. Ruby wanted weapon mods." Weiss slammed the door in Penny's face. Penny frowned. The door opened again.

"It's lovely to see you again, Penny." Weiss said, then shut the door again. The door behind Penny opened, and a blonde boy in a black hoodie and jeans stepped out.

"Oh, hi. I don't think I've seen you here before. My name's Jaune. Leader of Team JNPR." The boy held out his hand to shake. Penny shook it vigorously.

"Hello, Jaune! My name's Penny!"

"Are you a visitor from another Kingdom or have I not seen you this year? I've got awful observational skills."

"Oh no, I'm from Atlas! I'm participating in the Tournament!" Penny saluted. The boy looked her up and down.

"Really? You kinda seem...not prepared for the Tournament." The boy paused. "Said the pot to the kettle."

"I don't know what relevance liquid containers have in this conversation, but I promise that I'm combat ready!"

"Okay then. Nice to meet you, Penny, but I gotta talk to my...friend." Jaune gestured toward RWBY's room.

"Be aware that only Weiss is in there, Jaune." Penny advised.

"That's who I was looking for, thanks! Wait, you know them?"

"Affirmative! I consider Ruby my best friend!"

"Oh, cool! We should hang out some time. Anyways, see you later." Jaune scooted past Penny and knocked on the door.

"PENNY, IF THAT'S YOU AGAIN, I SWEAR I'LL KNOCK YOUR HEAD CLEAN OFF." They could hear Weiss roar.

"That's probably my cue to leave." Penny commented.

"Yeah, maybe. See you, Penny."

Penny walked away before Weiss could wreak havoc upon her. Her auditory receptors caught the conversation.

"Oh, sorry, Jaune. My friend Penny was here a little bit ago, and she's great and all, but she's a bit annoying. What would you like?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. For everything. Including the singing."

"Oh. Thank you. You never had a chance, by the way. It wasn't something you did."

"Can I know why? I'll ask Pyrrha to soothe my tortured ego."

"Well, let's just say that Blake and Yang aren't the only girls who like girls in this school. Except I don't like boys either. Don't tell anyone, obviously."

"What? I thought you and Neptune…"

"No, not like that. He's a cool guy and a sweet friend, but...no."

"Oh. My ego is not actually bruised at all."

"That's what you got from that?"

"It's a valid statement."

"Thanks, Jaune."

"No problem, Weiss."

"Friends?"

"Yes, please."

...

Penny found Yang and Blake in a diner downtown.

"Hey, Penny!" Yang called. Blake waved.

"Salu-"

"No, please don't." Blake said.

"Do you not like when I say that?"

"It gets annoying over time. Catchphrases tend to do that."

"I'm sorry. Where's Ruby?" Penny sat down in one of the vacant chairs.

"She refused to leave until she found the perfect scope sight for Crescent Rose." Yang answered. She flagged the waiter down.

"Earl Gray for my girlfriend, coffee with three sugars and three creams for me, and what do you want, Penny?"

"Just water for me, please and thank you."

"What she said. Thanks." Yang shooed the waiter away. "What's up, Penny? Didn't know you were around."

"My father said I could explore the city and spend time with my friends under the condition that I don't get into any incidents." Penny said.

"Penny, we know about your little secret. You don't have to refer to Ironwood as your father." Blake said.

"Ruby told you?"

"We don't hide secrets from each other on the team. Not anymore."

"Oh, you know that Weiss likes girls? Does she like anyone? I didn't even know you two were dating. I'm so happy for you, by the way!"

Yang spit out her coffee onto Blake.

"What the hell? Weiss likes girls?"

"Why didn't she tell us?" Blake tried to dry her shirt with paper towels.

"Um, what a funny joke, right?" Penny hiccuped. "She doesn't like girls, I was just kidding. She obviously likes Neptune." Penny hiccuped more.

"Oh. So my shirt was ruined over a joke? Damn it, Yang."

"Sorry, babe. It was quite a shock. Weiss liking girls? Ha." Yang sipped her coffee. And then her eyes narrowed. "When did you meet Neptune?"

"Uh, I haven't. Just heard that Weiss liked him."

"From who?"

"Jaune."

"When did you meet Jaune?"

"Just today, when I was looking for you."

"Oh, so you saw Weiss too. She was planning on sleeping the whole day, so she'd be in the dorm."

"Yep."

"Penny, could you tell me something that isn't true?" Blake said suddenly.

"Why?"

"I just wanna test something."

"Um…" Penny knew she'd made a mistake. She bowed her head. "The sky is purple." And she hiccuped.

"You hiccup every time you tell a lie, don't you? A sort of Pinocchio contingency."

"Yes." Penny said in defeat.

"Holy shit, Weiss likes girls." Blake and Yang said at the same time.

"Ah well. We can't talk shit."

"But now we can totally play matchmaker for her." Yang cheered.

"Who would she even possibly like? Nora is too chaotic for her, Pyrrha's totally with Jaune, she barely talks to Coco or Velvet. I certainly hope she doesn't like us."

"That'd be awkward. That just leaves…" Yang's eyes widened and she spit out her coffee again.

"YANG!"

"Oh hell no." Yang said in a panicked tone. Penny fretted. What had she done?

"Hey Penny!" The shrill voice of Ruby echoed around the diner.

AN

Okay, I really wanted to crank this out before midnight my time (I'm in EST. It's 23:56 at the moment) just to keep up the streak of at least 1 chapter a day. That totally won't be a thing for much longer because I have huge essays to write for a couple of my courses. To the chapter at hand: The Arslan I wrote may seem a little douchey but she wants what's best for her team, which you can't really fault. Reese is in a polyamorous relationship with Arslan and Bolin. I think it was a bit cute.

A review on Chapter 8(HOLY SHIT, I HAVE THREE REVIEWS!) was saying that the reader hoped that White Rose wouldn't be delayed to hell. It will be, just a little, only because I feel that Ruby and Weiss don't have the emotional maturity that Blake and Yang have. Blake and Yang have gone through some shit and they've had to shoulder a lot of responsibility (oh shit, it's 00:00 here now. Happy RWBY day!), and Ruby and Weiss have mostly been fine their whole lives. Obviously, I don't mean to diminish the pain that Ruby has lived with from the loss of her mother, and Weiss's stressful upbringing, but I feel that Blake and Yang are far more emotionally mature than Ruby and Weiss. Obviously, we know that this will change through the series. I'm diverging from canon a little here, and the rift will expand over time. In New Challengers, the SSSN vs. NDGO fight happened perhaps a few hours after JNPR vs. BRNZ. I'm changing this in Starseed, to the SSSN/NDGO fight happening the day after JNPR/BRNZ. Also, in canon, Blake still super likes Sun. In Starseed, she will not blush when he does his silly little victory dance.

I'd like to thank you lovely people again, this time for helping this fic surpass a thousand views, which to me is INCREDIBLE. I have ten followers and I think six favourites, which I loooooooove. This may seem minuscule but to me, it's a huge accomplishment. I hope I continue to impress you.

-Abigail.


	10. The Other Problem

Raven

"Weiss would probably be good for her, to be honest." Blake Belladonna said.

"Maybe. I just don't want her to get hurt, Blake." Raven couldn't help but feel joy when she heard her daughter's voice.

"Well, she is your little sister. That's only natural." And Raven's happiness disappeared. She'd been upset when her former beloved had married their teammate. The one person Raven trusted above anyone, even Qrow. She'd been disgusted when Summer had gotten pregnant. This little upstart, Ruby Rose was less than filth in Raven's eyes. The logical part of her mind told her that Ruby wasn't at fault for her mother's transgressions, but Raven didn't care.

"And who knows? Maybe Weiss doesn't like Ruby. Maybe she likes someone else." Yang suggested. Raven shifted her position. The tree she was hiding in wasn't very comfortable. Yang and her...girlfriend walked directly under Raven. _I could do it. I could just grab her and get out of this for good._ And then the moment passed. Yang and Blake continued down the path, unawares.

"On the flip side, even if Weiss likes Ruby, Ruby probably doesn't like Weiss. Does Ruby like anyone? Or is she too obsessed with Crescent Rose?" Blake asked. Yang laughed.

"Yeah, that's a valid point. Thanks, kitty cat." Yang gave Blake a kiss. Raven felt her skin crawl. She would've attributed it to her daughter kissing a girl, except her portal was opening beside her, unbidden.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Ozp-" Raven felt herself get sucked into the portal. It deposited her on the floor of Ozpin's office.

"Hello, Raven. May I ask what you're doing on my campus?" Ozpin said pleasantly.

"None of your business." Raven picked herself up. Ozpin's eyebrows went up.

"Oh really?" He said in a tone that hinted at cruel, cruel punishment. A portal opened beneath Raven, and its twin opened on the ceiling. She tried to leap out of the vortex, but it had its hold on her and within seconds, she was falling about fifty feet. She opened a portal to Atlas, but Ozpin intercepted it and she was powerless to stop her descent. She felt her nose break when she crashed into the floor.

"I could keep this up all day. You know how powerful my Aura is, Raven. So, please tell me what you're doing on my campus. I certainly hope it's not just to spy on Ms. Xiao Long and her girlfriend, and it better not be to assassinate Ms. Rose simply because Taiyang moved on after you abandoned him."

"May Grimm take you, Ozpin." Raven stood up, and set her nose back in place with a sickening crunch.

"They very well could, as we both know. Get back to work, Raven. We need to know what's coming." Her portal opened. She blinked into a forest.

"Bugger." She swore, and began to ascertain her location. Judging by the climate, she was in Southern Vale. The fog clung to her skin and cloak like a blanket. She knew why Ozpin had sent her here. She spun Scathach's dial, and set it to the Pyre Focus. She berated herself once again for not adding in a Focus for the Void. She was going to spend a lot of time in that shadowed realm soon, consolidating her power. Her instincts told her that her target was due south, so she put one foot in front of the other. Twenty minutes later, her robe was soaked through. She slashed at a tree with Scathach and soon, a fire was blazing. She stripped and let her clothes dry by the fire. She wasn't a modest person, but in times like these, she was glad for the isolation. It would be slightly embarrassing if someone saw her naked. Only for a few seconds, because she'd kill them, of course.

Weiss

Weiss didn't know why she'd come out to Jaune, of all people. Let alone before her teammates.

"Ruby, Blake, Yang, I'm gay. No, that sounds too casual. Friend, love interest, Yang...No. Bad. That won't work, obviously." Weiss banged her head against the wall. "I should just be normal about it. Guys, I want to tell you something. I'm gay, and I just wanted you to know that. And then drown me for being an idiot. This will never work." Weiss sat down at the foot of Yang's bed. "Blake and Yang didn't have to tell us. They just kissed until it was blatantly obvious. But it's not like I can kiss Ruby. For one, she obviously doesn't like me. Yang would murder me instantly, so that's a drawback. Damn it." Her scroll rang. It was her father again.

"Piss off." She muttered, tossing her scroll over to her bed. That was one person that she'd never come out to. She'd received a less than stellar response from Winter, but at least her sister accepted her. Her father would immediately disown her. She was already risking that by being friends with Blake. Best not to give him any more ammunition. At least not until she inherited the company.

"One more year." She sighed. One year for her father to try to find some way to invalidate her grandfather's will. Find some sort of legal loophole that would allow him to stay in power.

"Guys, I'm gay, and I really need you to accept me. I guess that could work." Her scroll rang again. She sighed and crawled across the floor.

"Ruby?" She answered.

"WEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSS!" Ruby yelled. Weiss flinched and held the scroll away from her ear.

"Calm down, Ruby. What do you need?"

"I FOUUUUUUUNDDDDDD IIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTT! CRESCENT ROSE IS SO BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLLL!"

"I'm very glad, Ruby."

"I HAVE THE COOLEST WEAPON EVERRRRRRRRR!Wait...HE HAS AN AXE THAT TURNS INTO A SHOTGUN AND HAS KATANAS BUILT IN! NO FAIR!"

"I'll see you when you get back, Ruby."

"SEE YOU, WEISS!"

Weiss ended the call. She knew she was smiling. Ruby had that effect on her.

Weiss whiled away the time until her team got back by completing some homework for Oobleck. Recently, they'd begun learning about the legal side of the Tournament. Who knew that Shade was only allowed to register three teams for the Tournament? One year, they'd sent ten teams just to see if they could get away with it. They'd all been eliminated in the team round. _Fairly pathetic, if you ask me._ The room door opened, and Ruby sped in, jumping onto her bed. The ropes holding it up swayed ominously, and Weiss moved a little closer to the edge of her own bed, just in case.

"Welcome back." Weiss said. Ruby leaned over to smile at Weiss.

"Hiya."

Blake and Yang walked in, lugging huge bags of food.

"What is all that for?" Weiss inquired.

"Well, when you and I kick ass in the doubles round, and Ruby and Blake kick ass in the secondary doubles round, we're gonna need to party. We're just getting ready ahead of time." Yang said. She dropped her bag, and the floor shook slightly.

"This room's gonna smell like tuna for a few weeks." Blake jumped up to her bed.

"I have something to tell you three." Weiss sat up, legs dangling off the edge of her bed.

"Shoot." Yang said. Blake watched attentively. Ruby swung down to sit beside Weiss.

"This is something I've been struggling with almost my whole life, and before today, only my sister knew. But I want to tell you, because you three are my best friends, and I trust you completely."

"Oh, hold up. I got a text." Yang held up a finger. "Neptune wants us to chill with him and his team for a pre-fight meal. Let's go!"

"Weiss, what did you want to say?" Blake asked. There was a knowing look in her eyes. Weiss picked at her nails, an old habit she learned from Winter.

"Nothing important. Let's go eat."

Sun

"So our initiation ritual at Haven is kinda epic. After we do the actual initiation of killing loads of Grimm in the woods, and not dying, we go out to a local bar and get smashed. And I mean completely, utterly, blindingly drunk. It's a tradition. So I'd just met Nep, Sage, and Scar, and we were already bros. We get to the bar last of all the teams, and when we get there, they're already passed out and the bartender's calling a taxi for them. So, since it's rented out for the day solely for Haven initiates, thanks to the upperclassmen, we've got the bar to ourselves. Sage and I spent the next five hours playing beer pong, and Scarlet was just drinking water like a wuss. And out of freaking nowhere, Neptune jumps onto the table, and breaks it. All of our beer just goes all over him, and he was completely soaked. The bartender wanted to kick us the hell out, but the upperclassmen pay extra money each year just in case something breaks, so he was more than covered. We forbade Neptune from drinking any more for the night, but right at last call, he knocks back five shots of Firedustwhiskey, and he strips. He was streaking through the city for a half hour while we tried to chase him down. It was not easy, because we were pretty drunk at the time too. He ran all the way to school, buck naked, and we all got detention for a week." Sun laughed. Team RWBY giggled.

"Neptune, how could you? I thought you were cool." Weiss teased. Neptune hid his face, but Sun could see his smile. He jabbed Neptune with his tail.

"Hey! Screw off, Sun." Neptune grinned and threw a pork rind at Sun, who grabbed it out of the air with his tail and ate it.

"Mmm, tasty."

"For my part, I can promise that we're regularly cool." Sage said.

"Yeah, we can totally tell." Blake said sarcastically.

"Well, obviously Scarlet is cool because his name is a shade of red, like mine." Ruby said. Scarlet high-fived her. Yang facepalmed.

"She's never gonna let that one go." She said.

"Nope!" Ruby confirmed, popping the 'p' in 'nope'. Sun groaned.

"Just what we needed; someone else for Scarlet to goof off with." He said.

"All because I talked about headlight fluid one time. One time!" Scarlet threw his hands up in exasperation.

"Headlight...fluid?" Yang asked. Weiss laughed.

"What a fool." She drank her tea to avoid laughing more.

"One time!" Scarlet complained.

...

"Those girls are pretty cool." Sage rumbled. They walked away from the restaurant, spread out across the street. No vehicles in sight must have meant that everybody was either at the arena or inside their homes, waiting for the match to start.

"Yeah, they really are." Sun agreed.

"Even though Blake rejected you for Yang?" Neptune asked.

"She likes Yang more, and they're a good couple. I can't be angry over that. Contrary to Scarlet's opinion, I'm not a douche."

"Hey!"

"Shall we head to the bar, for one quick round before the match?" Sage asked.

"Neptune, no kissing any of us."

"IT WAS ONE TIME!"

...

Sun sighed. _What the fuck, Neptune, get over it. It's only a few feet deep!_ Neptune raced away from the water, straight past the girls from Shade. They all looked at him.

"What the hell is that all about?" Their leader asked Sun.

"He's afraid of water." Sun answered.

"That sucks. Hey, isn't his name Neptune?"

"Yup."

"That is ironic as hell."

"We know."

...

The girls had no warning before they were electrocuted by Seaborg. Neptune gasped as the three members of NDGO collapsed in the water.

"Holy shit."

"Really? What did you think was gonna happen?" Sun bumped his shoulder. "We won, bro."

"Oh right. We won!" Neptune cheered and started to dance. Sun shook his head, laughing, and danced alongside his friend.

"It's gonna be a party in the dorm tonight." Neptune said.

"Scar's probably gonna abstain." Sun replied. "A shot to the nuts probably doesn't feel so good."

Ren

"Do you like me?" Nora asked. Ren choked on his tea.

"What?" He wiped away his tears and coughed a little.

"Just figured, what with Pyrrha and Jaune, Yang and Blake, and Ruby and Weiss, why don't we get together?"

"You know Ruby and Weiss aren't together, right?"

"Yet."

Woman after my own heart.

"Fair enough. So you like me, huh?"

"Well, of course, silly! I kinda...love you." Nora said hesitantly. He gestured for her to sit beside him. She bounded over instantly. He hugged her.

"I'm a little surprised that you like me. I thought you wouldn't want to be together together with someone you've known all your life."

"That's exactly why I wanna be with you, Ren." Nora said softly.

"Good."

And they kissed. Ren felt a sense of rightness.

"Well, that's not what I expected to see." Ren heard Jaune enter the room. Nora picked up a pillow and threw it at him. "Pyrrha, Ren and Nora are kissing and Nora threw a pillow at me!"

"Then don't interrupt them! Congratulations to you two, by the way. Come on, Jaune."

"I love you." Nora whispered against Ren's lips.

"I love you too." Ren replied.

"I CAN HEAR YOU." Weiss roared from across the hall.

"How the hell?" Nora asked. Ren shrugged. "DATE RUBY, YOU INSUFFERABLE SCHNEE!" Nora yelled back.

"Subtle." Ren commented.

"Ah well."

Mercury

"These Beacon kids are hooking up left, right, and centre." Mercury watched Schnee and Rose walk down the main path, a bit too closely. He turned around, putting his back to the window.

"Awww, Merc. Don't be bitter just because you can't get a girl." Emerald winked at him.

"Listen here, you little-"

"Don't start." Cinder cut off Mercury. He clamped his mouth shut. "CFVY won against CRDL as expected, and they've nominated Adel and Daichi to go on. CRDL nominated Winchester and Lark for the secondary doubles round. They're going to go against Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Unless either of you have any objections against that?"

"No, ma'am." Emerald said. Dutiful little soldier, aren't you?

"Good. As soon as Neo carries out her task, we'll be able to make sure that happens. And you two will fight Adel and Daichi. Schnee and Xiao Long will fight their friends Arc and Nikos."

Right on cue, the ceiling vent cover fell, and Neo tumbled out. She stood up, brushing off her shoulders.

"Did you do what you were told, Neo?" Cinder asked. The girl nodded. "Good. The rest of the day is yours to do as you please." To nobody's surprise, Neo curled up on Cinder's bed and immediately fell asleep.

"What do you want us to do?" Emerald asked.

"For now, nothing. Make RWBY think you're still their friends. Once you beat Adel and Daichi, Emerald will continue on to the singles round. In all likeliness, Schnee will be the candidate for the singles. You can handle her, right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good answer. For now, we wait. Adam will be taking care of our...other problem."

...

AN

HOW GOOD WAS TODAY'S EPISODE THOUGH?! Don't worry, non-Sponsors, I won't spoil anything. But it was so good. Anyways, enjoy chapter 10. I was looking back at the earlier chapters, just checking for continuity (and formatting the chapters, because doesn't like spaces in text, so I had to add dots because the scenes were changing rapidly within the singular perspective of characters. Some scene changes were very confusing, and I'm sorry if that weirded you out) and I realised that I promised that Team Sloth would be a thing starting very soon. Anyways, so that was a thing. Leave me messages/reviews telling me if I screwed up their first kiss thingy. I probably did. Also, Raven! And Ozpin has a Semblance! In case you were confused, my idea for Ozpin's Semblance is to trigger another person's Semblance remotely. Which would be insanely powerful. The reason behind Raven's disappearance after Yang's birth will be explored in the plot. (Also, I realised that the plot was taking somewhat of a backseat to the fluff, which I love writing but is entirely non-constructive. So you got a double dose of plot from Raven and Cinder)

Hope you enjoyed the little bit of SSSN goofing off. I totally imagine Neptune to be an idiotic drunk, and the rest of SSSN to be totally chill, except for maybe Gavin (I MEAN SCARLET) being a total derpy drunk. Scarlet's VA being Gavin totally screwed up my mental image of Scarlet as a character. I always thought he was gonna be a totally surly character who doesn't really care much about people except for his team. Weiss will be coming out to her team in a little bit, just as an FYI. She's gonna be hella distracted with Winter arriving at Beacon. (That's not a spoiler right? New Challengers has been out for a few weeks.)

Thanks for reading!

-Abigail


	11. The Sisters

Winter

"So, is Ruby just a friend?"

"Winter! You can not pair me up with every girl I know!" Weiss scolded her sister. Winter smiled.

"Yes, I can, and I will."

The two sisters stared at each other before Weiss grabbed Winter in a hug.

"I missed you." Weiss laughed.

"And I you, little sister. Now that we're away from prying ears, tell me how you are." Winter let go of Weiss and gestured towards the little table in the Grecian Room. One of the perks of being an esteemed guest of Beacon was having free rein of the most peaceful area on campus. The sisters sat down. The tea Winter had brought was still steaming. She poured them both a cup, and Winter used her Semblance to cool each cup to a manageable temperature.

"I'm alright. I'm learning a lot, and I feel like I'm really getting better as a fighter. We annihilated ABRN as a team, and it was amazing."

"It was a rather impressive fight, despite those missed strikes. The way your team propelled Ms. Xiao Long at Team ABRN was exceptional. I look forward to the doubles round. It's yourself and Ms. Xiao Long, correct?"

"Yes. We voted as a team to decide who would go on. I, of course, voted for myself. Blake and Ruby's reasoning was that I'm the most versatile of the team, and that Yang is our most powerful member."

"She is the least versatile, however, and she's prone to becoming enraged and losing focus, as you mentioned in your report of the skirmish on the train."

"This is true. Personally, I would prefer to fight alongside Blake. She's saved my life a few times, and she is extremely adept at all ranges."

"And her Faunus senses would be extremely helpful. Father still does not know about her, by the way. I've been diverting all reports of suspicion about her."

"Thank you, Winter."

"No need to thank me. He would fly into a rage if he knew you were friends with a Faunus, and I have no desire to see an enraged egomaniac in control of a gigantic company lash out." Winter sipped her tea.

"What's the issue with you and Qrow, by the way? Ruby and Yang talk about him as if he's some sort of saint, but he was so boorish today."

"Qrow and I… have an interesting history. Not in that way, do not think about that. I have standards."

"I wasn't-"

"Qrow and I differ on our approach to the defense of the Kingdoms. He prefers cloak and dagger, and he thinks I'm a sell-out for joining the military after Beacon. Whereas I think the best course is to intimidate the terrorists into being afraid to even leave their caves."

"Why did you fight, though?"

Winter sighed.

"He knows me far too well. Remember when my airship went down on my first solo mission?"

"I was so worried."

"Qrow saved my life. He aborted his mission to bring me back to Atlas. We ran into each other a few times after that, and he ended up being a bit of a mentor for me. He knows about our childhood."

"So he knows how to make you angry."

"Correct. The man is a brilliant fighter, as you saw, and he's quite kind at times, but he's an idiot."

"Unfortunate. Thankfully, Ruby and Yang seem to have taken after their father."

"Ruby's more like Summer. I met her once, you know. You were still just a baby. I was eight years old. She, Taiyang, and baby Yang came to our house to talk with our father. This was before he turned into a psychopath, so I was glad to sit in on their conversations. Summer was a kind woman, like Ruby. Reserved in nature, but I believe that came over time. But Oum, was she ever passionate. To hear her talk about weapons, was to step in the mind of a fanatic."

"Like Ruby." Weiss smiled.

"Like Ruby." Winter agreed. "I was sad when Father told me that she'd died, even though I hadn't seen her in years. She was a good woman, and I think Ruby will be much the same." Winter stared at Weiss pointedly.

"Stop, Winter. I don't like her like that. She's a great friend and she's actually kind of funny, and she's definitely cute, I can't deny that. But at the same time, she's so bloody infuriating, and she's so hyper, and she has no concept of restraint and… I love her as a friend. Maybe eventually, if she dials it back a little, maybe I might eventually like her as something more, but it's not happening right now."

"Whatever you say, little sister. As long as you're happy, I am fine. Now, show me your glyphs. I wish to see how much you've improved."

Yang

"You're going down, Uncle Qrow!" Yang roared as her pixelated character kicked at Qrow's. Her uncle chuckled and triggered a combo attack, ending in Yang's character dying a bloody death. Yang threw her scroll on the ground.

"This is some bullshit." She muttered.

"Heyyyy, we got some young ears here." Qrow gestured at Ruby. Ruby growled.

"I don't think she likes being reminded that she's the youngest person ever to attend Beacon." Yang said in a stage whisper. Ruby tugged her hood up and covered her face.

"Ah well, I gotta get going, kiddo. I promised your dad I'd be back on Patch by nightfall, and you know how he gets." Qrow pretended to muss up Yang's hair but she gave him a hard look and he backed off. They laughed at hugged. "Get over here, Ruby."

The young girl crawled over and all three of them hugged. Qrow didn't seem to want to let go.

"Between you two and your dad, you're all I have left. Stick to your studies, train hard, and be the biggest badasses to ever graduate from here, you hear me? Surpass my team in sheer awesomeness. Especially you, Ruby." Yang felt a pang of jealousy, but shrugged it off mentally. She knew deep down that Ruby was gonna be a better Huntress than her, maybe even the best of them all.

"We love you, Uncle Qrow." Ruby said.

"I love you too, kiddo."

...

"Yang, he was hurt. I felt his ribs shift." Ruby said. They watched their uncle climb aboard an airship from their room. He waved in their general direction as the airship took off.

"So did I. He must have been on a mission recently, and didn't take the appropriate time to heal."

"I don't like it."

"Me either, sis." Yang stood up and cracked her back. "Let's talk about fun things instead. Like Weiss."

"How is Weiss fun in any way?" Ruby stared at Yang.

"Well, not fun, per se. Interesting, maybe?" Yang sat down on her bed.

"What are you getting at, Yang?"

"I think she likes you. I'm fairly certain of it. And while I want you to have the perfect partner, I acknowledge that Weiss is a pretty good friend to you. She'd be an acceptable sister-in-law."

"Oh my God, Yang, you promised to stop trying to match me up with people." Ruby jumped up to her own bed and hid beneath her cloak.

"I promised at Signal. Beacon's a whole 'nother beast, sis." Yang laughed.

"Please stop." Ruby said, her voice muffled by her cloak.

"Do you liiiiike her?" Yang teased.

"I don't like anyone, and you know it!"

"Come onnnnn, sis."

"I hope you know that it's perfectly alright for somebody to not like anyone else. Look at Yatsuhashi, for example. He's completely uninterested in dating people or any of that icky stuff."

"Wait, really? I thought he and Velvet were an item."

"They're more like brother and sister! Ewwwwwww."

"Yeah, ew. You and Weiss would totally be cute, you know."

"Thanks, I'll pass."

"YOU'RE SINKING MY SHIP."

"Wait, was that Ren?" Ruby stared at the door.

"I think so. What the hell is Nora doing now?"

...

AN

Sorry for the short chapter, guys, but with how I planned this story, the next chapter will be extremely tonally different to this chapter. So, I had to separate them.

This chapter was about as far as I was willing to go into Episode 4, which was released yesterday for sponsors, and today for non-sponsors. Fear not, THERE ARE NO SPOILERS in this chapter. Granted, the episode wasn't very plot-heavy, and basically all of the plot we did get was already in the 'Next time on' thingy that RT releases on Youtube.

In Starseed, Winter is seven years older than Weiss. This would put her at 24 during Weiss's first year at Beacon. In Starseed, she attended Beacon (and I will actually be making a team for her. They'll show up towards the middle of the story arc, which won't be for a while. I'm gonna leave it to you guys to make a team for her, if you want. Leave reviews, or private message me with your idea for the team members and their team name. I kinda want Winter to be the leader, but that's entirely up to you) for the four years, graduated at 21, and enrolled in the military. The first two years were grunt work, at which point she was promoted to Specialist thanks to her Huntress training. So Winter is a qualified Huntress, and this may or may not come into play later on *cough*. Papa Schnee whom I've tentatively named Wulfric, was actually a really cool person in this AU before the events of the series. I won't say exactly what caused him to become a douchebag, but you'll see. Don't worry.

This was a blatant White Rose chapter, I know, but I really want White Rose to be perfect when it starts being a thing. It's my OTP of the series, even more than Bumblebee, so I want it to be absolutely perfect.

Chapter 12 is incoming, loves. It'll be a doozy. Thanks for reading,

-Abigail


	12. So It Begins

Raven

"Branwen! Where the hell were you? We're planning the strike." Lieutenant Zareen blocked Raven's path.

"I was taking care of business." Raven said curtly. The deer woman refused to move.

"That's very vague, Branwen. Do I need to report you to Amethyst?"

"Go ahead. She'll verify that I had a mission. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got somewhere to be. And if I'm late, you'll be at fault. You wouldn't want to be demoted so soon, would you?" Raven shoved Zareen aside.

"You know, if any of us even suspect that your loyalties lie elsewhere, say at Beacon possibly, you'll be killed. Quite brutally, in fact." Zareen said.

"As you've said five times. Thank you, Lieutenant." Raven stalked down the hall. I'll kill you first, Zareen. Grunts milled through the corridors of the underground complex. A few of them shouted greetings as Raven passed, but as soon as she passed the blue line into the designated administrative section of the hideout, all sound stopped. Thank Oum for Silver's Semblance. No sound could come in or out of the section, which was helpful for obvious reasons. Raven approached the checkpoint.

"Good day, Captain. They've started without you." One of the guards said.

"As expected." Raven grumbled. She stepped into the decontamination chamber. After a quick cleansing, the door on the other side opened and she carried on her way. The blue walls were designed to keep everyone awake and alert, and they were working. Voices echoed down the hall out of the conference room. Raven opened the door without announcing herself.

"There you are, Ms. Branwen. We were concerned that you'd miss the meeting. Come in, and sit down." As usual, Silver's condition made Raven feel a bit of pity. Just a bit. His ECG machine beeped constantly, and Raven wondered if this was the meeting in which she'd finally go insane. Amethyst, Adam, Rupert and Phiren were already assembled around the table, the women on Silver's right and the men on his left, as usual. The conference room itself was sparsely furnished, with only the gigantic table that would seat far more at the annual meeting, its accompanying chairs and a grotesque painting on the wall behind Silver portraying humans getting brutally slaughtered. All in all, it was a bit tacky. Raven took her seat beside Phiren. She nodded at Adam and Rupert.

"I was delayed, unfortunately. Unavoidable. Would you like to give me a synopsis of the meeting, or have I wasted too much time already?" Raven asked.

"Tell her, Amethyst." Silver croaked.

"Beacon is supplying some of its surplus Dust to the Vale Police Department. It's to be carried on an airship from the school to the city at dawn. We've planted an extremely weak bomb on the fuel line. It'll look like an accident, but the bomb will trigger a chain reaction in the Dust, causing a much larger explosion. It won't detonate until the airship is over the city." Amethyst dutifully summarised.

"Thus, killing loads of civilians." Raven stated.

"It will be an unfortunate tragedy, one that will unite the city in mourning. And there is where we strike." Adam finished.

"It's a good strategy, no?" Silver asked.

"Yes, it is. Ozpin will suspect something, as he always does, but I don't think even Ironwood would be prepared for this." Raven answered.

"So, Raven, do tell us how your mission turned out. Did your little scouting mission go off as planned?"

"He doesn't suspect a thing."

"Good. Agent Cinder is taking care of the Vytal Tournament, keeping everyone occupied."

...

"That was fun, don't you think? This time tomorrow, we'll have a plan that actually went off as we wanted. Unlike the Breach." Phiren ended with a sigh. "May Ginner curse Torchwick for screwing up yet again."

"Agreed. We going out for drinks later?" Raven held the door open for Phiren. The cafeteria was crowded with grunts. A table was instantly cleared when the occupants recognised the two Council members.

"Maybe. Rupert might want to train. I'll try to see if I can skive off."

"Thanks, Phi. You're a saint."

"The Kingdoms might not think so after the massacre next week." Phiren grimaced.

"Do you not like the plan?" Raven snapped her fingers for food.

"I'm not fond of it. Innocent people will die. I know it's unavoidable, but I just don't like it. Collateral damage and all."

"You've got a point. I signed up for our freedom."

"Well, and then you got pregnant."

"Lesser women would feel regret over that. I will never regret my daughter."

"I know. Jeez. I wasn't saying that you should regret her. She's a hell of a fighter."

"Good." Their food arrived. Raven dug into her steak and peas.

"The fact that you're not a lesser woman is the reason Silver is looking at you for a promotion." Phiren lowered her voice.

"Is he?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, we discussed it just before you arrived. Adam was complaining about how late you were, and Amethyst defended you. By Ginner, I think you're the only thing she gives a shit about aside from the cause. Which is why Silver's thinking of marrying you and Amethyst."

"For one, ew. That's gay. For two, why? What possible benefit does he have of gaining me as a second daughter?"

"You know how I hate to talk about Silver behind his back, and you know how much I respect him, but honestly, I think he's gone a bit senile. He's not looking for benefits."

"That….is worrisome."

"Anyways, what are the Grimm like out there?"

Ruby

"Morning, Weiss!" Ruby greeted her friend.

"Ruby, the sun hasn't even come out yet. Shut up." Weiss hit Ruby with a pillow.

"Yeahhhh, but I can hear Jaune and Pyrrha moving around. I'm gonna go see what's up."

Ruby jumped down from her bed.

"Are Ren and Nora still on their training mission to Forever Fall?" Weiss muttered.

"Yeah. Nora will probably come back on a massive sugar high from the tree sap." Ruby ducked into the bathroom to change into her corset and battle skirt.

"Then you probably shouldn't interrupt Jaune and Pyrrha." Weiss called.

"Why?" Ruby left the bathroom and tossed her pajamas at her bed. She totally misjudged her throw and they hit Weiss in the face. Ruby cringed.

"Sorry!"

"Ruby, what do couples do when they're alone, and really like each other?"

"Huh? Oh. OHHHHHHHH. Yeah, I suppose I won't interrupt them. Wanna grab breakfast?"

"Well, you know, I'd like to sleep, but since someone so rudely ended that." Weiss sat up and yawned. "Gimme a minute."

"Oooh, I can hear them in the hall! They must not be doing...that." Ruby left her room. Jaune jumped in surprise.

"Hi Jaune! Hi Pyrrha!" Ruby waved.

"Hello Ruby!" Pyrrha bowed.

"What are you two doing awake?"

"Professor Ozpin gave us an assignment last-minute. We're supposed to guard a shipment of Dust. We're helping out the local police." Pyrrha answered.

"Ooh, a little community initiative." Weiss left the team room, and shut the door quietly.

"Yeah, it's just what we do as the defenders of the innocent." Jaune preened.

"Get over yourself, Jaune." Weiss teased. _Since when are they so friendly?_

"So did you tell them that you're-"

"Shut up, Jaune!"

"Uhhhhh, what?" Ruby asked.

"It's probably nothing, Ruby." Pyrrha said.

The four friends traded jokes and short anecdotes all the way to the heliport. The airship was still being loaded. Sky Lark and Dove Bronzewing were hefting giant crates into the cargo hold, while Professor Goodwitch levitated them one at a time.

"We'll see you later, ladies. Ruby, video games later?" Jaune bumped fists with Weiss.

"You're gonna go down this time, Jaune." Ruby vowed.

"Nah, I'm too good for you."

"Only because you spent your childhood playing games while the rest of us were training to kill Grimm."

Pyrrha and Weiss laughed until they cried.

"She's got you there, Jaune!" Pyrrha patted her boyfriend's back. The blonde man hung his head.

"Yeah, you're right. Shall we go, Pyrrha?"

"Yes, let's. See you later, you two!" Pyrrha hugged Ruby quickly and waved farewell to Weiss. They climbed aboard the airship and waved while it took off. The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. Ruby sped off to a bench and sat down. The airship's wings were silhouetted by the light of the rising sun.

"Doesn't seem like a routine assignment, does it?" Weiss put her hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Ah well. It's cool that we're helping out the cops, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it's fairly cool."

"Heh, you said cool. How urban of you." Ruby snickered. Weiss laughed too. The airship started to descend...and then it blew up.

"What the…?" Ruby stood up.

"Oh Oum, no." Debris started raining down from the sky.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"


	13. Comfort

Ozpin

"We gather here today to commemorate the loss of two promising young trainees, Jaune Arc, and Pyrrha Nikos, and the fifty civilians who also died in the explosion. The civilians will have their own memorial service on Thursday, but today, we honour our fallen students. Jaune was a friend to all. His loved ones describe him as a selfless individual who always tried to better himself, both as a person, and as a Huntsman-in-training." Ozpin paused. Team RWBY, Nora and Ren were crying noiselessly. He was a little surprised to see Weiss Schnee crying. He had been under the impression that Weiss and Jaune had not been close.

"Pyrrha Nikos, a gifted fighter, came to Beacon under the light of celebrity. She could have had her pick of teammates, but she gladly allied with seemingly the most common of individuals. She had a heart of gold, and was always willing to lend a hand." Nora and Ren both let out loud sobs. Ruby cried into Weiss's shoulder.

"They will be missed. Spare a thought for their friends in the coming months, and especially their teammates. Their names will be inscribed upon the wall of fallen warriors in the Hall of Legends on campus. If you are religious, I would ask that you take this time to pray. And then we shall have a moment of silence."

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all."

Ozpin waited for a few minutes before beginning again.

"I wish we had someone to blame for this." He said. "Someone that we can hunt down, and make them feel the pain we all feel. But bad things do not always occur at the hands of bad people. This tragic accident cost us two of our friends, but we can't do anything about it. And that may be the worst of it. Classes will be postponed for a week to accommodate for the grieving process." Ozpin walked off the podium, limping heavily on his cane. Glynda accompanied him.

"That was a good speech, Headmaster." She said.

"I thought so. How are they healing?"

"Quite well. He's got a strong will."

"Good. Meet me in the infirmary later. I've a meeting to get to."

...

"The city will be bombed next." Raven perched on a rafter.

"While it's in mourning? Cruel, even for Silver."

"Yeah well, he's losing it a bit. Is my daughter alright?"

"She was friends with the two students who died. She's grieving." Ozpin watched the clockwork of his office move under the floor.

"Is she _physically_ alright?" Raven clarified.

"Yes, Raven."

"Good. So what do you want me to do? Sabotage the bomb? Call in a report?"

"None of that."

"A lot of people will die, Ozpin."

"I know. And Ironwood will take the blame for letting it happen under his watch. After all, he is Head of Security for the moment."

"By Oum, that's cold." Raven cursed. Ozpin raised an eyebrow.

"Going soft, Raven?"

"No. I was wondering how you're so hard."

"We'll need to be. What's Silver's next step?"

"Neopolitan has installed a bug on Ironwood's scroll. Cinder has full access to it."

Ozpin grinned.

"I knew you'd like that. As far as I know, she's only using it to modify the matches. She had planned for her lackeys to fight Coco and Yatsuhashi, and for Jaune and Pyrrha to fight Weiss and Yang. With the deaths of Jaune and Pyrrha, Weiss and Yang will have to fight Sun and Scarlet. It'll be an even easier victory for them, leaving them fresh and ready to take on Emerald and Mercury."

"How do the secondary rounds look? Who are Cinder and Neopolitan fighting?"

"More than likely, Ruby and Blake." Ozpin noticed that Raven choked back a growl. He frowned. She'd have to accept that Taiyang and Summer were together, or he'd have to cut her loose. Ruby was an exceptional fighter. "I'd suggest changing it last minute. Swap out Ruby and Blake for Nora and Ren. Those two need something to take their anger out. Who better than one of the many threats against us?"

"Good idea. I'll keep it in mind."

"Silver plans to use Ironwood's scroll to control the Knights, who will attack the city. The Huntsmen and Huntresses and all the students will be forced to intercede, leaving Beacon for the taking. This beautiful campus will be rubble by this time next week."

"Not if I can help it."

"Really, Ozpin? You're gonna choose this school of all things to save from Silver?"

"Beacon is symbolic. This will be our command centre when the war begins."

"If you say so."

"Is there anything else you'd like to say, Raven?"

"Silver trusts me completely now. He wants me to marry Amethyst." Raven paced back and forth.

"Remind me to send you a gift for the wedding." Ozpin said dryly.

"Oh, shove it up your ass. Should I bite my lip and go through with it?"

"Yes. Get even closer to him. When all this is done, you'll be the one to kill him. He won't expect it from his beloved daughter-in-law."

"You're a strange man, Ozpin."

"Go back to the hideout, Raven. Come back just before he takes control of the Knights, but only to let me know. Then immediately go back to his side."

"Yes, sir."

Weiss

"I miss him." Ruby said.

"So do I, Rubes." Weiss held her friend's hand. Their fingers intertwined.

"Weiss?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't you dare leave me. I wouldn't be able to handle that." Ruby snuggled up to Weiss.

"I won't." Weiss kissed the top of Ruby's head.

"Hey, that's Yang's spot. Find somewhere else to kiss."

"Oh?"

"Not like that."

Weiss laughed.

"I don't think I've heard you laugh very much, except for this month. I like it." Ruby stroked the back of Weiss's hand with her thumb.

"Ruby...You know how I had something to tell you the night we hung out with SSSN?"

"Yeah. Oops, I forgot about that. What was it?"

"I'm gay."

"Oh."

They sat in silence, but at least Ruby didn't move away from Weiss.

"How long have you known?" Ruby asked.

"All my life. Wasn't entirely sure until I met the daughter of one of my dad's friends. We were fifteen, and after rejecting every guy that my dad tried to marry me off to, I met her and… she kissed me." Weiss giggled. "We were dating in secret for a few weeks until she got too scared. I haven't seen her since."

"That sounds awful. Thanks for trusting me with that."

"Thanks for being cool. I came out to Jaune the day he and Pyrrha got together. He wanted to apologise for his actions, and I kinda told him that he never had a chance. I wish I was nicer to him."

"He really liked you, you know. As a friend. I mean, yeah, he had his hopeless little crush on you, but he really cared for you."

"Yeah, I know. Oum, of all people it could have been. I'd gladly trade CRDL for Jaune and Pyrrha." Weiss kissed Ruby's hand.

"We can't be like that. All we can do is hold tight to the people we love."

"Good point." Weiss hugged Ruby tight.

"Subtle, Princess." Ruby hugged back. "I love you too."

"You aren't gonna kiss me, are you?"

"In your dreams. I'm never leaving you either, by the way. I'm your partner for as long as you want me."

"We'll see where we are at graduation. May murder you by then."

The girls laughed.

"I love you."

Blake

"Shit, my buttons!" Yang had ripped open Blake's jacket.

"I'll sew 'em back on." Blake felt her Yang's hands disappear beneath her waistband. Yang kissed Blake and their tongues wrestled within Blake's mouth.

"Aren't you frisky?" Blake asked.

"Oh, shut up." Yang took off her shirt. She wasn't wearing a bra underneath.

"And I thought they were big when restrained." Blake commented.

"Pff, you think I ever restrain these? Hell no. My Semblance would be in overdrive from that kind of pain." Yang loosened her belt, and shimmied out of her shorts. Even her panties had her symbol on them. Yang noticed Blake staring.

"Yeah, I had to get these custom-made. The tailor was a little weirded out."

"They're kinda cute. Mind leaving 'em on for just a bit?"

"Oh, don't tell me you're a pillow princess."

"Just not ready to see my girlfriend naked."

"Ah. Fair enough." Yang tugged at the hem of Blake's shirt. The Faunus woman held her her arms up and let Yang take off her shirt.

"Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too." The women kissed. Yang ran her hand across Blake's chest. "I wish my boobs stopped growing at this size."

Blake felt her cheeks redden.

"I thought they were big until I met you."

"They're really not, sweetie." Yang's kisses trailed down Blake's neck toward her chest. Blake moaned. "Shhh!" Yang giggled. This section of the library was barely visited but noise would alert nearby persons. Yang unhooked Blake's bra and let it fall.

"Awwww, your nipples are the cutest." Yang winked. Blake batted at Yang's head.

"You shush."

Yang kissed Blake's breasts gently. Blake arched her back against the bookcase.

"Please, Yang. More."

"My pleasure, kitty cat."

...

"That was great."

"Just great? I must be losing my touch."

"Yaaaang!"

"I love you, Blakey."

"I love you too."

...

When they went back to their room, they could hear sobs from Nora and Ren's room. Yang placed a hand on their door and bowed her head.

"They need their time, Yang."

"I know."

Blake opened the door to their room. She noticed Ruby and Weiss spooning. She jumped onto her own bed. Wait…

"Um, Yang?"

"Yeah? Oh. Never thought Ruby would be the big spoon."

"You're not gonna freak out, right?"

"Nah. I can't blame them for needing comfort. Besides, it's kinda cute."

"If you wake up Ruby, I'll end you both." Weiss whispered.

"Yes ma'am." Yang saluted. "I approve." She whispered to Blake.

AN

Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. I was trying to both write this story, and do schoolwork. Today I went to a courthouse as part of my Law class and it was mentally exhausting, so I'm burnt out. There won't be a Starseed update tomorrow (Dec. 2), as I'm starting a Freezerburn/Ladybug college AU. Should be fun. Anyways, hope you didn't freak out too hard over Chapter 12. *laughs evilly*

Thanks for the attention, guys. We're at almost two thousands views. It's insane. I love it. I'm suddenly Ernest Hemingway. Anyways, check for the AU tomorrow. It'll pop up around the normal Starseed upload time. (21:00 EST.)

-Abigail


	14. Smooth Criminal

Cinder

Neo watched Cinder pace back and forth as the forest burned.

"How dare he ruin my plans? I told him I had it in hand!" Cinder raged. Neo shrugged.

"Cinder, it's not as if it's a big difference. Now, Weiss and Yang will have to fight Sun and Scarlet instead." Emerald soothed.

"EXCEPT FUCKING OZPIN SWAPPED THAT OUT TOO."

"Oh yeah. Now they're fighting that FNKI team. Who's Sun and Scarlet fighting?"

"Nolan and Zedong from BRNZ." Mercury supplied.

"Oh, Sun will definitely be moving on from that."

"Fine. Emerald, Weiss and Yang will likely beat FNKI. You will face Weiss. Destroy her."

"With pleasure, ma'am."

"The gall he has. How dare he ruin my plans?" Cinder muttered to herself. Neo looked at Emerald and Mercury with some alarm.

Roman

"Pair of aces." Kobin held out his cards.

"Three fives, ace high." Vladimir laughed.

"Nice try, boys, but straight to ten." Williams stretched.

"Sucks to suck, Torchwick." Kobin grinned. Roman just leaned back.

"I think you'll find, gentlemen, that I win this round, and all of those cigarettes."

"Huh?" Vladimir flipped over Roman's cards.

"HOW THE HELL DOES HE HAVE A ROYAL FLUSH?!"

"I believe they call that the luck of the draw, gentlemen. And with that, as the Mistralians say, adieu." Roman gathered all of the cigarettes and put them in his trusty plastic bag. He stood up and tipped his hat to his fellow players.

"Wait a sec, Torchwick. Lemme see your sleeves." Williams stood up. Kobin and Vladimir followed suit.

"Now why would you wanna do that?" Roman backed away.

"Because I think you're a dirty cheater."

"Oh, come now. Just because I win almost all the time doesn't mean I'm a cheater. I'm just better than you." A crowd was forming. They all wanted to see Roman get his ass kicked.

"Boys, let's get him."

Roman backpedaled into a few burly convicts. He laughed nervously. Kobin and Vladimir grabbed his arms and legs. Roman thrashed about, but to no avail. Williams picked the ace out of his sleeve.

"I really thought I had hidden that better." Roman said. The following beatdown was almost as painful as when that traitor Belladonna had knocked him cold.

"Hey! Inmates, break it up!" A guard yelled. Kobin and Vladimir each gave him one more good punch and then backed off. Williams kept at it, however. Right up until a guard's baton broke his jaw.

"Torchwick, eh?" The guard helped Roman to his feet. "You need the infirmary?"

"Yeah, that could help." Roman picked his hat off the ground, and placed it on his head. The guard pushed Roman ahead of him toward the infirmary. Once they were away from the commons, Roman sighed.

"You didn't have to be so convincing, Percy."

"What can I say, boss? It's fun as hell to push you around from time to time."

"Not that. Breaking Williams' jaw. He's gonna resent that."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Never mind that. What's the news from the outside?"

"Silver blew up Nikos and Arc, and then attacked the city."

"Oh, did he? Hmm. I wonder when Ironwood will 'question' me about that. Do you know the next step?"

"Nah. Sorry, boss."

"That's fine."

"Have you found Rierden yet?"

"I'm just waiting for him to introduce himself."

"I get that you had to get yourself thrown in the slammer to meet him, but this sucks."

"Now, now, Percy. Cinder's plans make the difference in the long run, unlike Silver's. Honestly, that man has no concept of the long game."

Percy handed Roman a cigar. Roman dipped his head in thanks.

"I should probably get back to my rounds before anybody gets suspicious."

"Take me back to my cell, then."

"Will do."

Percy pushed Roman ahead of him back down the hallway. The commons was almost empty when they got back. Roman noted a few new blood stains on the ground.

"I do hope they got their comeuppance." Roman gestured. Percy grunted.

"Shut up, inmate." Percy shoved Roman. Roman shook his head. A familiar figure stepped in their way, flanked by two Specialists.

"Ah. Hello, General." Roman greeted.

"Torchwick. Come with me." Ironwood ordered. Percy shoved Roman toward Ironwood.

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir." Roman saluted. One of the Specialists punched him in the face. Roman noted the brass knuckles a second before they hit him, and then registered the burning sensation in the place where he'd been hit.

"You got some Fire Dust in those puppies?" Roman asked. The other fist smashed into his eye, and he felt the side of his face go numb.

"Enough. There'll be time for that later." Ironwood commanded. The Specialist backed off. Her partner grinned and cracked his knuckles.

"Oh, General. What have I done to deserve such treatment?" Roman smirked.

"I've got a few questions for you."

...

They tossed him headfirst into the interrogation room. The two Specialists walked in behind him, picked him up and shoved him into a chair with restraints. They fastened all the buckles around him, and tightened the straps painfully. Ironwood paced around Roman.

"I assume I don't need to remind you how this works."

"Oh, please. Do elaborate." Roman smiled.

"Fine. I'll ask you questions. If I don't like your answers, my colleagues will hit you."

"How direct. Ask away, General."

"What are your bosses planning?"

"No clue."

He received a punch to the gut with Frost Dust for his troubles.

"General, honestly, I don't know what the big plan is. Why would they tell a lowly smuggler?"

"I'll ask the questions, thank you. Is your organization that compartmentalized?"

"Very. I don't know any part of the plan until they tell me. Which is infrequent at best." The Specialists moved as if to hit him, but Ironwood gestured for them to stop. Which was odd, because they should not have been able to see his hands.

"What do you know of the attack on Vale?"

"Well, I was to lead a horde of Grimm toward the city with a train. It was supposed to be a few days later, so more people would be in the city but my plans were a bit hastened."

"I'm not asking about the Breach, Torchwick. There was an attack on the city a few days ago. Two Beacon students were killed."

"Forgive me if I don't have any sympathy." A baton smashed into his knee and he howled. The male Specialist grinned in delight. _Sadistic, huh?_

"They were good students, from what I've heard. Well liked by their peers and good fighters. They're missed. And that's not even counting the hundreds that died along with them. Civilians, Torchwick. Innocent people."

"You say that as if it would faze me. We planned to kill innocents, you idiot. The Breach would've slaughtered civilians left, right, and centre if we hadn't been stopped by those children."

"But yet again, you underestimated Team RWBY."

"Yeah, that does seem to be an annoying habit of mine."

"So, you knew nothing of the attack?"

"This is the first I've heard of it."

"Interesting. Do you have any idea what the plan _could_ be?"

"Well, General, there are multiple venues of possibility. They could be trying to assassinate the leaders of the Kingdoms, they could be trying to incite mass panic. Dust, they could even be trying to kill Ozpin. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Ozpin is my friend, and a good Huntsman. The world would be poorer without him."

"Not from what I've heard, General. I heard that you voted him out of confidence in the Council. I heard that you've been plotting to get him removed from Beacon. What, are his plans too smart for you?"

"You can't make me angry, Torchwick. We Atlesians are trained well. Tell me who your bosses are."

"Ooh, before I answer that, I've just thought of what the plan could be. They could be trying to destroy the villages in the Eyrie. I've heard that you Atlesians train your best warriors there. Oh wait."

Roman saw Ironwood's face contort into a mask of rage.

"I have no further questions." Ironwood gestured to his Specialists and left the interrogation chamber. The Specialists smiled.

"You've gone and done it now." The female said.

...

Next thing Roman knew, he was in the infirmary. He felt burns all over his body, and his broken bones grated against one another. He groaned in pain.

"Hey, don't move. You're pretty messed up." A man called. Roman opened his eyes to see a burly doctor pull a chair up to his bed.

"Torchwick, eh? You must have pissed off Ironwood pretty bad."

"It's a talent of mine." Roman coughed weakly.

"I'll get you some water."

"What's your name? I want to know who to thank after this is over."

"Rierden. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, even if you're kind of a dick."

"Same to you." Roman relaxed back into his bed. He concentrated his Aura and felt his bones heal. A satisfied smile spread across his face.

AN

Hello, it's me. (Reference out of the way.) I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Roman will always be one of my guilty pleasure characters. I hate him so freaking much but he's hilarious and he's got so much potential as a character, so I'm totally torn on him. This chapter is a bit short, mostly because I've been stressed off my ass finishing a research essay for my Canadian and International Law class. But next week's chapter will be bigger and better. I'm gonna try to get at least four thousand words out for Chapter 15. A new Blitz chapter is coming out tomorrow, and a new drabble will be published on Thursday. (It's Monochrome.)

So I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you tomorrow for Blitz. (Somebody reviewed Chapter 13 and said they were happy that Jaune is dead. Dude, the fuck? I love Jaune!)

-Abby (Oh, and get ready for the finish of the Vytal tournament. I'm gonna wrap it up by Chapter 17. It'll be a blast)


	15. Preparations

Blake

Blake closed her eyes as Yang brushed her hand against Blake's forehead. Yang's lap made a very nice headrest. Blake turned her face and pressed her lips against Yang's belly.

"This is nice, isn't?" Yang said.

"Yeah. One of the last few nice moments we'll have for a very long while." Blake said.

"Ruby and Weiss are basically in denial. Nora and Ren are baying for blood. They're absolutely certain Jaune and Pyrrha's airship was targeted, and honestly, I can't blame them."

"War is coming, Yang. I've never seen this level of violence from the White Fang. I mean, what was it, a hundred people in the first blast as well as Jaune and Pyrrha? And five hundred at the memorial?"

"Fuck. This is so bad. It's gonna be like the Breach but far worse."

"The Grimm will come." Blake said. Yang paused her stroking of Blake's hair.

"Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you. In case I don't get a chance to say it for a long while, I want you to know."

"Yang, you told me the night we made love for the first time, and I haven't forgotten. I appreciate the sentiment, though. And I love you too."

"For the first time?" Yang echoed.

"Well, duh. That wasn't just some grief sex for me, and I'm planning on being with you for a long time yet." Blake opened her eyes and looked up at Yang's smiling face.

"That's a plan I can get behind." Yang said. Blake's scroll buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket.

"Ruby says Ozpin is looking for me. Best go see him." Blake sat up. Yang yanked her back, and pressed her lips to Blake's own.

"Now you can go." Yang winked. "I'll see you in the Coliseum, babe."

Blake poked her girlfriend in the ribs. Yang just laughed and laid on her back in the grass. Blake stood up and for just a moment, she saw _everything_ about Beacon. Team BRNZ and ABRN were sitting together and laughing. Reese blew kisses at Blake and waved. Blake waved back. Coco and Velvet were sitting on their male teammates' shoulders as they ran around and jabbed at each other with balloon swords. Blake could hear Velvet cursing in her Menageriean accent and grinned. Blake saw Glynda Goodwitch watching from the Tower. She beckoned toward Blake, and the moment was over. Clouds covered the sun, and the gentle breeze died down.

"Are you alright, Blakey?" Yang asked.

"Yang, this is the calm before the storm. We'll need to appreciate it. I'll see you later." Blake said.

"Ooookay?"

...

Blake took the short elevator ride up to Ozpin's office from the atrium of Beacon. The clockwork mesmerised Blake as it always did, but the woman clad in red and feathers by Ozpin's desk took her attention. Her eyes were blood red.

"So you're the infamous Blake Belladonna." The woman stated. Her voice was a rasp, as if she'd smoked every day of her life. Ozpin sat in his chair, his intertwined fingers making a bridge for him to rest his chin upon.

"Blake is one of our most versatile fighters here at Beacon. She's only matched by Weiss Schnee. Pyrrha Nikos held that distinction until the tragic accident." Ozpin said calmly.

"Some of us don't feel as if it really was an accident, Headmaster." Blake said.

"She's got a bit of bite, I see. Hopefully she can carry that with her over the following days." The woman said.

"I must make introductions. Blake, this is Raven Branwen. She is one of the few spies that can be relied on in this day and age for the best intel. She's an excellent spy."

"Ozpin does flatter me." Raven said simply.

"For instance, she's been spying on you and Ms. Xiao Long for the past few months. She doesn't quite approve of your relationship with Yang, or the existence of Ruby Rose. I doubt Qrow would be happy with Raven's actions." Ozpin continued. Raven's nostrils flared in rage. Blake's mind went into overdrive until the pieces connected.

"You piece of shit." Blake whispered. She conjured a clone into existence beside Raven. The woman jumped in surprise, and while she was looking away, Blake launched herself at Raven. The woman didn't even react until Blake's hands and the ribbons of Gambol Shroud were wrapped around Raven's throat.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO HER?!" Blake smashed Raven's head into the ground. Raven's hands clawed at Blake's face and left fairly deep scratches. Blake didn't lessen her grip on Yang's mother in the slightest. Raven's eyes began to roll up in her head.

"Ms. Belladonna, I would appreciate if you didn't kill our one informant in the White Fang." Ozpin said blandly. Raven fell unconscious. Blake untied Gambol Shroud with one hand, but kept the other around Raven's neck. She punched Raven one last time and stood up. Spitting on Raven's unconscious form, she faced Ozpin. He was smiling quite serenely.

"Adrenaline does help you ignore the pain, doesn't it, Ms. Belladonna?" He waved at her torso. Blake saw the gaping wound in her stomach, and whimpered. The pain hit her full force, and she sank to her knees. Her blood splattered over the floor, and the gears under the floor slowed and stopped.

"You and Raven are quite wounded, so I'll need a lot of power for this." Ozpin said. The pool spreading out from Blake stopped growing, and the pain disappeared. She felt under her shirt, and her fingers ran across unblemished skin. Even her ears had stopped aching from the constant bindings of her bow. Raven groaned, and clutched her head.

"Thank you, Professor Ozpin. I shouldn't have lost control like that. Is your Semblance healing?" Blake stood up. Her boots glistened red with her blood.

"In a sense, yes. But Professor Port will be quite tired for the rest of the day." Ozpin inclined his head. "Raven, get up."

The woman sat up and glared at Blake.

"You wouldn't have been the first I've killed." Blake said.

"You either." Raven massaged her throat, and used Ozpin's desk to help her stand up. "But congratulations. I now approve of you being with my daughter. Despite the obvious problem. Which one of you is the guy?"

Blake shot Raven in the foot with a quickdraw for that. The woman roared in pain and spewed curses Blake hadn't even heard of before.

"Enough!" Ozpin ordered. "Raven, your daughter happens to be dating a woman. That woman was enraged enough by your abandonment of your daughter to attempt to strangle you to death. She even disregarded a fatal stab wound. That alone should earn your respect, when she clearly cares more for your daughter than you have in almost eighteen years."

Raven growled.

"I arranged this little meeting so we can have a little discussion about the next step. Blake, as you've more than likely assumed, war is on our doorstep. Raven has told me that the plan is to attack Beacon itself. Rid the world of many Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training. Which, as you know, would be very bad. Not to mention that a blatant attack on the Kingdom would spawn so much fear that the Grimm would be on their way here in an instant. Unfortunately, we can not prevent this, but we can be prepared."

"Why are you telling me this?" Blake asked as the elevator dinged.

"Sorry Professor, my team refused to let me go." Velvet said.

"Sup, Blake?" Sun called. Blake facepalmed.

"I'm sensing a trend here." She accused.

"Let's wait for the others." Ozpin reclined.

"Others?" Velvet asked.

"What's going on? Is that blood? Who's that?" Sun pointed at Raven. The elevator dinged again. Arslan and a few visiting students from the Tournament entered the office.

"Ozpin, what the hell are you planning for us in this war?" Blake asked.

AN

There's only going to be this rather short chapter of Starseed for this week because I'm planning on a little special something for Blitz tomorrow. (How is it so much more popular than Starseed when it has a fraction of the views?)

The war begins soon. This is gonna be fun.

Thanks as always for reading,

-Abby


	16. City In Flames

Neptune

"Hey, Sage, do you notice how everyone seems super tense?"

Neptune's green-haired teammate looked up.

"Nah. Are they?"

"Yeah. They really are. Those girls from Shade, the ones that we beat, they were walking around looking all...tense."

"NDGO?"

"Yeah, them. They had their weapons at the ready. And there's a bunch of those Atlas robots walking around. I think we might be mobilising to go after the White Fang. You know, after that attack on the city."

"Dude, chill. We're only in training. If anything, they'll send out trained Hunters. Like our teachers. But we're not gonna see combat. We're too young for that."

"Blake and Velvet were looking pretty scared and you know how calm those two are."

"Well, Sun won't be happy about that."

"I wonder what Ozpin wanted with him, anyways. Where's Scarlet at?"

"He's in the city, shopping. He said he was looking for a new sash, but personally, I think he's looking for an anniversary gift." Sage smiled.

"Six months, huh? Congratulations, man. I'll admit that it was a bit of a surprise when you and Scar came out, but what the hell, we're brothers."

"Stop with the mushy shit, dude. Save that for Scarlet and I."

"Fight me." Neptune felt his stomach rumble. Sage raised an eyebrow.

"Wanna head to the caf?"

"Oh, hell yeah."

"Lemme finish this chapter." Sage's face lit up with joy. "VAV AND MAD KING."

"WHAT!?"

"VAV AND MAD KING KISSED."

"FINALLY, YES!" Neptune whooped.

"Okay, celebration pizza, right now." Sage and Neptune high-fived. Then all hell broke loose. The city's alarm started blaring as explosions sounded throughout the residential and business sectors.

"Oh fuck." Sage grew pale. "Scarlet!"

"Go find him! I'll get Sun!" Neptune shoved his teammate into action. The two men parted ways at the main walkway of Beacon, Sage heading to the helipad, Neptune toward the atrium. Team RWBY ran past him, brandishing their respective weapons. Out of habit, Neptune waved to Weiss, and she gave him the finger.

"All Hunters on campus report to the Symposium Hall." Ozpin's voice came on the PA. Neptune and RWBY skidded to a halt.

"What the hell? We need to be out in the city!" Yang complained.

"If Ozpin needs us, we have to listen." Weiss stated. Neptune shook his head and jogged toward the Hall. He spotted Sun's blonde hair amongst all the other trainees.

"Sage has gone into the city to find Scarlet." Neptune said to Sun when he'd taken his place at his partner's side.

"Shit. I hope they're gonna be alright. Listen, I got something to tell you." Sun said.

"I know. Probably."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"I'll keep this brief." Ozpin appeared at the front of the Hall, speaking into the microphone. "The White Fang is attacking the city. Before you run off into battle, let me tell you that their main objective is Beacon. They mean to draw us out, so that the school is undefended. And let me tell you, that must not happen. So take your places on the perimeter. We will protect Beacon." Ozpin disappeared into a red portal.

"This is gonna be a shitty day." Neptune remarked.

"You have no idea. Dude, I have to tell you this thing."

"Oh go ahead, if you're so sure I don't know."

"I love you, Nep. And I really need you to know that...in case things don't go well tonight."

"I know."

"YOU DID NOT JUST HAN SOLO ME." Sun raged. Neptune winked at him.

"When we make it to tomorrow, we'll talk about it. But for now, let's kick the shit out of some terrorists." Neptune summoned his locker. He heard a massive crash from outside, followed by some yelps of shock.

"You screwed up somehow, didn't you?" Sun stared at him.

"Probably."

Weiss

"This is gonna be a long night." Ruby said. The person on her left, a student from Haven, nodded in agreement. Weiss frowned.

"It could be especially long for Blake and the other Faunus, thanks to Ozpin's plan." She grumbled.

"I am right here." Blake said testily.

"No irritating my girlfriend." Yang called. "We need her at peak performance."

"Sorry!" Weiss stared out into the darkness. Screams echoed from the city.

"I hate this. Not being able to help. This is why I'm at Beacon, and now we can't do an Oum-damned thing." Ruby grumbled.

"Hear hear!" Bolin of ABRN yelled. Weiss craned her neck to look at the team from Haven. She and the leader, Arslan, had gotten along quite well in the weeks after the fight. Arslan didn't care that she was a Schnee. She just cared about Weiss, the individual. In retrospect, Weiss thought she could sympathise with why Pyrrha liked Jaune. Her frown grew even deeper. We'll get our bloody vengeance. The other Hunters, forming a giant circle around the campus, were fidgeting. Oobleck and Port were guarding the main doors, their weapons at the ready. Weiss looked at her own weapon. Myrtenaster had carried her through some tough fights, but today would surpass all of them. Ruby put her hand on Weiss's shoulder. Weiss looked at her partner.

"We'll make it, Weiss. You, me, Blake, Yang, all of us. We're gonna be awesome and badass. We're gonna graduate, and we're gonna be professional Huntresses and we're gonna be loved by everyone." Ruby said, her eyes shining.

"I wasn't worried about that. I'm concerned that Myrtenaster's gonna get a few scratches." Weiss smiled. Ruby laughed.

"Self-assured Weiss is self-assured." Yang snickered.

"Oi, you lot. Shut up! We're trying to psych out the enemies with stoicism!" Coco yelled.

"FIGHT ME, ADEL."

"THAT CAN WAIT FOR LATER."

"Yang, don't antagonise Coco." Ruby scolded. Another explosion shook the city.

"We need to be down there!" Someone yelled.

"Ozpin ordered us to stay put!" Someone else yelled.

"SCREW OZPIN, PEOPLE ARE DYING." said Cardin, of all people.

"He's got a point. We need to protect them." Blake shrugged. Weiss looked at Ruby. The younger girl was staring at the city, her mouth set into a thin line.

"Yeah, screw the orders." Ruby nodded. "Weiss, we're going into the city. Blake, Yang, stay here. If the school comes under attack, call us."

Yang expanded Ember Celica.

"You got it, sis. Kick some ass."

"Will do."

Ruby and Weiss headed toward the ever-growing group of students preparing to freefall towards the city.

"You still got your 'landing strategy', Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"Pff, never forgot it. Been awhile since I practiced, unfortunately."

Cinder

The street surged with civilians fleeing the White Fang invasion. Unfortunately for them, their panicked flight led them directly into Cinder's fires. The few that didn't perish in the flames would die upon Cinder's blade.

"Neo, I don't believe I've had this much fun in ages. We really should do this more often." The multi-coloured assassin twirled her parasol at the same time as she shoved her heel through a man's chin. He choked to death on his own blood.

"Where are Emerald and Mercury?" Neo croaked. Cinder fought the urge to shudder. In her opinion, Neo shouldn't try to speak at all.

"Killing more fools toward the site of the Breach. The Grimm one, not the one we made tonight." Cinder grabbed a woman who'd tried to sneak past her and broke her back with an acrobatic twist.

Emerald

"Hey, Merc, watch out!" Emerald shot a man who was trying to bludgeon Mercury with a baseball bat.

"Thanks!" Her silver-haired partner waved at her. A bakery burned behind him and White Fang soldiers were chasing down its proprietors.

"What do you think the death toll will be tonight?"

"Eh, thousands? Maybe towards ten thousand or so?" Mercury killed a teenaged boy with a single kick.

"So basically, a total massacre. I like it."

"It's my kind of party, after all."

A cop drew his gun on Emerald and fired. Her Aura deflected the bullet and she smiled at the man. He soiled himself and tried to run away, but she threw Cyprus's chain at him and caught him round the ankle. She pulled him back toward her and just before he crashed into her, she plunged her blade through his back. He collapsed to the ground, breathing his last. She slaughtered the people around her, tossing grenades into buildings every now and then, laughing as shrapnel hit the fleeing civilians. An airship flew overhead, depositing Atlesian Knights. Merc's gunboots spat liquid mercury at them, dissolving their armour, and frying their circuits. The mercury would obviously have much greater effect on life forms, but it was still extremely effective on the robots. Another form dropped from the airship, shadowed and undefinable. Emerald turned her attention to the fight at hand, deciding to worry about the new arrival later. She slashed the arms off a Knight that had gotten too close and kicked it back into its comrades. A thought formed at the back of her mind, a nagging feeling that something was wrong. It took form just as she dismantled the last Knight.

"Merc, where the hell are the Hunters? They should be out here, trying to fight us, so Amethyst and the rest can take Beacon."

"Oh shiiiiiiiiit." Mercury paled. He grabbed a familiar old man and shattered his legs with a flurry of kicks. A shot rang out, and Mercury's back was stained with blood.

"Merc!" Emerald got out before a flurry of rose petals filled her vision, and her stomach was hit with the business end of Crescent Rose. Ruby Rose's rage-filled face appeared in front of her, and she was kicked backwards into a pillar. Emerald groaned, pressing a hand to the wound in her gut. Her Aura had been completely destroyed by the attack. She looked up to see Crescent Rose swinging toward her head. She raised her arms, knowing they would not stop the blade, but doing so anyways. Her swift death never came. The scythe had been embedded in the stone beside her head.

"I'm only sparing you because I don't believe in cold-blooded murder. Unlike you, you fucking traitor." Ruby spat on her.

"Did you just say the f-"

Ruby punched Emerald in the face, knocking her out.

Sage

Thyme slammed through multiple White Fang soldiers, tearing them limb from limb. The man behind the gigantic blade didn't wait for the corpses to fall before he smashed through them, looking for his beloved. The clothing store that Scarlet favoured had been empty, save for the shopkeep's body. All around were the remains of civilians and soldiers, White Fang and Atlesian alike. The street's asphalt was covered with blood and gore, and robotic circuitry. Buildings on either side burned, people still screaming inside. Up ahead, a few White Fang soldiers had cornered some civilians. Sage cleaved them all from groin to neck.

"Run! Get to Beacon!" He yelled at the civilians. They ran, screaming. They didn't get more than a few feet before the building beside them blew up. Sage was knocked off his feet by the blast, and a huge portion of a wall landed on top of him. His ears rang, and he knew he was bleeding profusely. He tried to get up, but found that he had no energy to do so. He fell back, hitting his head off the ground. Suddenly, he felt as if he wanted to sleep. He was so, so tired, and this pillow beneath his head was so comfortable. In fact, that wasn't a chunk of wall on top of his legs, but a blanket. He reached down to pull it up and over his chest, but he was far too tired for that. He closed his eyes, and prepared to dream.

"Sage?! Are you out here?!" He heard Scarlet yell. Trust Scarlet to ruin his beauty sleep. But ah well, if he wanted to come cuddle with Sage, so be it.

"Sage! Holy shit, Sage! Don't go to sleep on me! Don't you goddamn dare!"

"Scar, sleep." Sage muttered. His throat felt as if he'd swallowed a hundred spiky burrs. You know, those little bastards that stick to velcro.

"Sage, no! It's our goddamn anniversary tomorrow and you are not dying on me, you bastard!" Scarlet's South Mistralian accent was more pronounced than ever, and Sage smiled. He loved that accent. It was soothing, in a way, but that was probably only because it belonged to Scarlet. He tried to open his eyes to look at his boyfriend, but he couldn't. Or maybe the lights had gone out.

Bolin

"Reese, watch out!" A Goliath stomped into the town square, coming within feet of Bolin's girlfriend. She hopped onto Piecemeal and hovered away, to fight at the side of Bolin's other girlfriend. The battle had been ongoing for almost four hours, and the Grimm had entered the fray. The White Fang scattered in front of a cyclone of Deathstalkers. Nadir fired upon the biggest of them, blinding one eye. The giant scorpion turned to face him, and Bolin could swear there was rage in the remaining eyes. Nadir turned and ran, Arslan and Reese taking his place. Bolin turned Nadir around, and the two men ran past their teammates and struck down a pack of Beowulves. Piecemeal went flying past Bolin and cut off the Deathstalker's tail. It shrieked in pain, and all the other Deathstalkers turned toward Team ABRN.

"Aw shit." Bolin said. Nadir gulped. Arslan picked up the fallen tail with her massive strength and stabbed the stinger towards its owner. It swiped at her with its gigantic pincers but Reese shot at it with Piecemeal in its dual pistol form. The Dust bullets peppered the Deathstalker's face, particularly around the eye that Nadir shot out. While it flailed, Arslan stabbed it through the skull with its own stinger. One down, only five or so to go.

Yang

"THEY'RE HERE!" Fox roared. Velvet punted a White Fang rabbit off the edge of the helipad. His terrified screams echoed as he fell. Yang cracked her knuckles, and Blake pulled out Gambol Shroud. The two of them nodded at each other as White Fang leapt onto Beacon from a Bullhead. Yang fired Ember Celica's shells at the encroaching fighters, and Blake jumped at them, slashing with Gambol. The intruders had very little Aura, and likely no Semblances, so they were no match for the trained fighters. Yang bit her lip. There was no way in hell that this was the whole invasion force. She could hear the fights dying down all across the campus. Fox and Velvet high-fived Sun and Neptune. Ren and Nora were still playing with a poor dog Faunus. Yang watched as the woman incurred small slashes from StormFlower, and broken bones from Magnhild.

"Should we stop them? Because that's more brutal than anything I've ever done, and I've tortured innocent people for information." Blake asked. Yang looked at her girlfriend. Blake shrugged. "This is me opening up to you."

"I'll take what I can get."

"I'm gonna put that guy out of his misery." Blake said just before Nora smashed the Faunus in the chest, launching him off the floating island.

"I could hear those ribs break." Yang winced.

"Eh, they're plenty pissed at the White Fang. Let 'em blow off steam."

"I thought they already blew off enough steam when they fought Cinder and that Dulce chick."

"That was painful to watch. Mostly because you totally thought Dulce was cute, but goddamn, did Nora ever give it to 'em."

"I did not think she was cute!"

"Puh-lease, you're a sucker for twintails, just like Ruby."

"How did you even- You know what? Nevermind." Yang grumbled.

"Just teasing." Another Bullhead rose up above them. "Ooh, what easy targets are we gonna get now?" The hatch opened and a red-haired masked man in a trenchcoat jumped out, closely followed by a girl with purple hair in a purple dress. Blake paled beside Yang.

"What's wrong, Blakey? They don't look that tough." Yang reloaded Ember Celica.

"Yang… that's fucking Adam." Blake said quietly, her eyes wide with fear.

"Oh shit."

"FALL BACK. EVERYBODY GET IN DEFENSIVE POSITION." Blake roared. A few students followed her order without a second thought, but the rest looked at her as if she were crazy. Adam pulled a gigantic sword out of his sheath, and laughed.

"Oh, hello, Blake." He said. His voice was grating, and arrogance was very present. The woman beside him cracked her neck, twin sais extending from sheaths cleverly disguised as bracelets.

"Don't you even think about touching her!" Yang fired Ember Celica at Adam. He deflected the blasts, barely moving his sword.

"Amethyst, if you would?" He turned to his partner. She combined the two sais, a purple light forming at their base. Team BRNZ charged Adam and Amethyst, hoping to catch them off guard, but Amethyst turned and fired at them. The huge beam caught May Zedong in the chest, and launched her across the courtyard. She didn't move when she landed.

"YOU BITCH." Brawnz yelled. He rushed Amethyst, but Adam caught him 'round the throat.

"You defenders of Beacon, and your so-called 'free world', watch what happens to those who resist." Adam said to everyone observing. Oobleck and Port fired their respective weapons at Adam, but he just moved Brawnz into the path of the projectiles. His Aura absorbed them, but didn't do much when Adam's sword passed through his chest and out his back. Brawnz's body twitched and spasmed as he died. His teammates looked on in shock.

"ADAM." Blake yelled. The man threw away Brawnz's body without a care.

"Oh yes, my love?"

"You're going to fucking burn." Blake snarled. She turned to her fellow students, and the shocked professors (or rather, professor and Doctor!).

"Kill the woman, but he's mine."

"What a bold claim, Blake, but remember the last time you tried to overpower me and how well that turned out. I'm sure your girlfriend will have found the signs by now. That is, if you've become intimate alright. Wouldn't surprise me, considering how free you are with your body." Adam put his sword back in his sheath.

"Did he just infer that he-?" Nora asked. Blake nodded.

"He's all yours, but I wanna pound on him before you kill him." Nora stated.

"Sure thing, Nora."

"You're not fighting him alone, babe." Yang kissed her girlfriend's cheek.

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"Hey Nolan! Wanna give me a boost?" Nora yelled.

"WITH PLEASURE." Nolan threw one of his batons at Nora, who caught it and jabbed it into her own stomach. The electricity surged into her body. She tossed the baton back and jumped in the air.

"IT'S GAME TIME." Nora roared. She smashed Magnhild down in between Adam and Amethyst. The two were blown apart, and everyone surged into action. The majority went for Amethyst, but Blake, Yang, Nolan, Roy and members of multiple other teams aimed directly at Adam. He didn't have a chance to react before he was flattened by the horde of angry students. Yang unloaded both clips of Ember Celica into his skull before just punching him with her bare knuckles. He stopped moving a minute into the beating, but nobody stopped hitting him.

"Well, isn't that a little interesting?" Adam's voice rang out behind them. Yang stood up quickly.

"What the hell?"

Yang looked at the man in front of her, and the man on the ground. Suddenly he didn't look much like Adam at all. Amethyst laughed.

"My Semblance is illusion. Unlike my sister's, which only produces hallucinations, the illusions I produce are very, very solid. You've just been beating the piss out of a poor sod we pulled from that burning wreck of a town." She said. Blake growled.

"Come here, Blake. We both know you want to." Adam smiled.

"Go to hell."

"Oh, we might both, eventually. You've done quite enough to warrant yourself a one-way ticket. Shall we find out?" Adam pulled his sword out again. Blake walked up to him, Yang at her heels.

"I will find you, ya know. Wherever you run." Blake said.

"Not if I killed you right now." Adam poked Blake's throat with his blade.

"You wouldn't dare." Yang spat.

"And why's that, blondie? Do you think you have a better claim to her? She was mine first. In more ways than one." Adam's smile turned lecherous.

"Oh, go to hell." Nora smashed both Adam and Amethyst up into the sky. They fell over the edge of Beacon, screaming. Blake and Yang looked at her.

"What? I wanted to hit him." Nora shrugged.

AN

Hey everybody. I know this should've gone out a couple of days ago, but Christmas thingies have been hectic, and I haven't had much time to rest, let alone write. Over the weekend, I had the dumbass idea of drinking more alcohol in one sitting than I have in my whole life (which, to be fair, isn't that big of an amount, but it was more than enough to incapacitate me for three days) and I needed time to recuperate. I only got back to normal a couple of days ago. Anyways, I'm heading over to my dad's girlfriend's later, and I'm not sure if they have WiFi, the Steam sale is kicking my wallet's ass, so a big chapter of Blitz might come out later. I'll use my phone's data if I have to. If I don't upload in time, which I likely won't, Merry Christmas. I love you guys, and the dedication you show me is an amazing present. So, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Krampusnacht, etc.

This time of year can be incredibly stressful and emotionally draining, so if you guys ever need anything, you can PM me. If you need some serious help, please call a helpline. There are many different helplines including Kids Helpline, Suicide Helplines, and I'm sure you could even call 911 and an operator would be able to talk to you. Everybody, please, have a safe and happy holiday. I look forward to more of this story with you.

Love,

Abby.


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